Elephantosaurus
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Elephantosaurus'' is an extinct genus of
dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivores that typically bore a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, t ...
from the
Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epoch (geology), epochs of the Triassic period (geology), period or the middle of three series (stratigraphy), series in which the Triassic system (stratigraphy), system is di ...
(
Ladinian The Ladinian is a stage and age in the Middle Triassic series or epoch. It spans the time between Ma and ~237 Ma (million years ago). The Ladinian was preceded by the Anisian and succeeded by the Carnian (part of the Upper or Late Triassic ...
) Bukobay Formation. The
holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
and only known specimen, catalogued as PIN 525/25, is a fragment of the skull that includes portions of the left
interorbital region The interorbital region of the skull is located between the eyes, anterior to the braincase. The form of the interorbital region may exhibit significant variation between taxonomic groups. In oryzomyine rodents, for example, the width, form, and ...
and
nasal bone The nasal bones are two small oblong bones, varying in size and form in different individuals; they are placed side by side at the middle and upper part of the face and by their junction, form the bridge of the upper one third of the nose. Eac ...
s, and suggests a very large animal with a skull at least wideV’yushkov, V.P., 1969. New dicynodonts from the Triassic of the Cis-Urals. Paleontol. Zh. 1969, 99 – 106 (in Russian). (although it may have been smaller than ''
Stahleckeria ''Stahleckeria'' is an extinct genus of Middle Triassic (Ladinian) dicynodonts.''Stahle ...
''). The bones of the skull roof are also unusually thick. While usually considered a member of the
Stahleckeriidae Stahleckeriidae is a family (biology), family of dicynodont therapsids whose fossils are known from the Triassic of North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Classification Phylogeny Below is a cladogram from Szczygielski and Sulej (2023): ...
, generally due to its size, it probably falls just outside the group due to its
frontal bone In the human skull, the frontal bone or sincipital bone is an unpaired bone which consists of two portions.'' Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bo ...
contributing substantially to the margin of the eye socket.


See also

*
List of therapsids This list of therapsids is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all Genus, genera that have ever been included in the Therapsida excluding mammals and purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also gene ...


References


External links


The main groups of non-mammalian synapsids at Mikko's Phylogeny Archive
Kannemeyeriiformes Anisian life Middle Triassic synapsids of Europe Triassic Russia Fossils of Russia Fossil taxa described in 1969 {{anomodont-stub