''Glaucosaurus'' is an extinct genus of
edaphosaurid synapsid
Synapsida is a diverse group of tetrapod vertebrates that includes all mammals and their extinct relatives. It is one of the two major clades of the group Amniota, the other being the more diverse group Sauropsida (which includes all extant rept ...
from the
Early Permian 01 or 01 may refer to:
* The year 2001, or any year ending with 01
* The month of January
* 1 (number)
Music
* '01 (Richard Müller album), ''01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001
* 01 (Urban Zakapa album), ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011
* ''01011 ...
of
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
. The type species, ''G. megalops'', was named in 1915.
[S. W. Williston. 1915. New genera of Permian reptiles. ''The American Journal of Science'', series 4 39(233):575-579]
Classification
''Glaucosaurus'' is known only from its holotype, a partial
skull and
jaw. Almost all of the sutures have been obliterated. Nevertheless, there is broad agreement that ''Glaucosaurus'' is not only an
edaphosaurid, but a close relative of ''
Edaphosaurus'' itself.
All of the known
sphenacodonts are
carnivore
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...
s except for certain
therapsids. ''Glaucosaurus'' is plainly not a therapsid, e.g. because the lacrimal reaches the
naris, the septo
maxilla
In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...
is large, there are no
incisors, etc. And it is just as plainly not a carnivore, since it lacks cutting edges on the teeth or canine-like teeth. So, it is very likely to be an edaphosaur. Assuming that this is the case, it is very close to ''Edaphosaurus'', because only ''Glaucosaurus'' and ''Edaphosaurus'' completely lack both canine teeth and a canine buttress, lack the transverse flange of the pterygoid, and have prefrontal with a ventral (descending) process which is expanded toward the middle of the skull, forming an anterior housing for the eyeball. However, ''Glaucosaurus'' differs from any of the known sorts of ''Edaphosaurus'' in have an incredibly long maxilla, and in the equally extreme length of the prefrontal's ventral process.
[
]
See also
* List of pelycosaurs
References
External links
The main groups of non-mammalian synapsids at Mikko's Phylogeny Archive
Edaphosauridae
Prehistoric synapsid genera
Cisuralian synapsids of North America
Taxa named by Samuel Wendell Williston
Fossil taxa described in 1915
Cisuralian genus first appearances
Cisuralian genus extinctions
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