''Lycaenops'' ("wolf-face") is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

therapsids. It lived during the

Middle Permian The Guadalupian is the second and middle series/epoch of the Permian. The Guadalupian was preceded by the Cisuralian and followed by the Lopingian. It is named after the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas, and dates between 272.95 ± 0. ...

to the early Late Permian, about 260 mya, in what is now

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Description

Like the modern-day wolves from which it took its name, ''Lycaenops'' had a long and slender skull, with dog-like

fangs A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external Chelic ...

set into its upper and lower jaws. These pointed canine teeth were ideal for stabbing and/or tearing at the flesh of any large prey that it came upon. ''Lycaenops'' most likely hunted small vertebrates such as

reptiles Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

and

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 ...

s. ''Lycaenops'' walked and ran with its long legs held close to its body. This feature is found in mammals but not in more primitive

amniote Amniotes are tetrapod vertebrate animals belonging to the clade Amniota, a large group that comprises the vast majority of living terrestrial animal, terrestrial and semiaquatic vertebrates. Amniotes evolution, evolved from amphibious Stem tet ...

s, early reptiles, and

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 ...

s such as

pelycosaur Pelycosaur ( ) is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term mammal-like reptile was used, and Pelycosauria was considered an order, but this is now thoug ...

s, whose legs are positioned to the sides of their bodies. The ability to move like a mammal would have given ''Lycaenops'' an advantage over other land vertebrates since it would have been able to outrun them.

Species

The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''Lycaenops ornatus'' was named by South African paleontologist

Robert Broom Robert Broom Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African medical doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University ...

in 1925. Several other species have also been referred to the genus, including ''L. angusticeps'', which was originally named ''Scymnognathus angusticeps''. It is currently considered a valid taxon. Several other specimens have been referred to as ''Lycaenops'' but are no longer included within this genus. This includes: * ''L. kingwilli'', which was originally named ''Tigricephalus kingwilli'', is now placed in the genus '' Aelurognathus''. * ''L. tenuirostris'', which was originally named ''Tangagorgon tenuirostris,'' is now in the genus '' Cyonosaurus''. * Two additional species, ''L. microdon'' and ''L. sollasi'', were added to ''Lycaenops'' after being classified as ''Aelurognathus species''. The species ''L. minor'' is now considered a synonym of ''L. sollasi''.

Classification

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 the phylogenetic analysis of Gebauer (2007):

References

; * {{Taxonbar, from=Q132713 Gorgonopsia Prehistoric therapsid genera Guadalupian synapsids of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1925 Lopingian synapsids of Africa Taxa named by Robert Broom Guadalupian genus first appearances Capitanian genera Wuchiapingian genera Lopingian genus extinctions

Description

Species

Classification

See also

References