Epicynodontia is a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

cynodont Cynodontia () is a clade of eutheriodont therapsids that first appeared in the Late Permian (approximately 260 Megaannum, mya), and extensively diversified after the Permian–Triassic extinction event. Mammals are cynodonts, as are their extin ...

therapsids that includes most cynodonts, such as galesaurids, thrinaxodontids, and

Eucynodontia Eucynodontia ("true dog teeth") is a clade of cynodont therapsids including mammals and most non-mammalian cynodonts. The oldest eucynodonts are known from the Early Triassic and possibly Late Permian. Eucynodontia includes two major subgroups, ...

(including mammals). It was erected as a

stem-based taxon Phylogenetic nomenclature is a method of nomenclature for taxon, taxa in biology that uses phylogenetics, phylogenetic definitions for taxon names as explained below. This contrasts with Biological classification, the traditional method, by which ...

by Hopson and Kitching (2001) and defined as the most inclusive clade containing

Mammalia A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle ear bon ...

and excluding ''

Procynosuchus ''Procynosuchus'' (Greek: "Before dog crocodile") is an extinct genus of cynodonts from the Late Permian. It is considered to be one of the earliest and most basal (phylogenetics), basal cynodonts. It was 60 cm (2 ft) long. Remains of ...

'', a Late Permian genus that is one of the most basal cynodonts. Below is a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

from Pusch ''et al.'' (2023) showing one hypothesis of cynodont relationships:

References

Cynodontia Lopingian first appearances Extant Permian first appearances Tetrapod unranked clades Taxa named by James Hopson Taxa named by James Kitching {{Cynodont-stub