''Lycideops'' is an extinct

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 ...

therocephalia Therocephalia is an extinct clade of therapsids (mammals and their close extinct relatives) from the Permian and Triassic periods. The therocephalians ("beast-heads") are named after their large skulls, which, along with the structure of their te ...

ns from the

Late Permian Late or LATE may refer to: Everyday usage * Tardy, or late, not being on time * Late (or the late) may refer to a person who is dead Music * ''Late'' (The 77s album), 2000 * Late (Alvin Batiste album), 1993 * Late!, a pseudonym used by Dave Groh ...

of South Africa. 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 ...

is ''Lycideops longiceps'', named in 1931 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 ...

. Fossils of ''Lycideops'' come from the ''Dicynodon'' Assemblage Zone of the

Beaufort Group The Beaufort Group is the third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa. It is composed of a lower Adelaide Subgroup and an upper Tarkastad Subgroup. It follows conformably after the Ecca Group and unconformably under ...

. ''Lycideops'' is a member of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Lycideopidae Lycideopidae is an extinct family (biology), family of therocephalians from the Late Permian and Early Triassic of South Africa. Phylogeny Below is a cladogram from Sigurdsen ''et al.'' (2012): References

Baurioidea Lopingian first a ...

. Like other lycideopids, ''Lycideops'' has a long snout.

Phylogeny

''Lycideops'' has been included in several

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analyses, including those of Huttenlocker (2009), Huttenlocker ''et al.'' (2011), and Sigurdsen ''et al.'' (2012). All place ''Lycideops'' within the advanced therocephalian clade

Baurioidea Baurioidea is a superfamily of therocephalian therapsids. It includes advanced therocephalians such as ''Regisaurus'' and ''Bauria''. The superfamily was named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1911. Bauriamorpha, named by D. M. ...

. Huttenlocker (2009) and Huttenlocker ''et al.'' (2011) found it to group with ''

Regisaurus ''Regisaurus'' ("Rex's lizard", named after Francis Rex Parrington) is an extinct genus of small carnivorous therocephalian. It is known from a single described species, the type species ''Regisaurus jacobi'', from the Early Triassic Lystrosauru ...

'' and ''

Scaloposaurus ''Scaloposaurus'' is an extinct genus of carnivorous therocephalians living during the Permian 259.0—254.0 Annum, Ma existing for approximately . Taxonomy ''Scaloposaurus'' was named by Richard Owen, Owen (1876). It was assigned to Therocephal ...

'' as shown in the

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 ...

below: The analysis of Sigurdsen ''et al.'' (2012) came to a different result, grouping ''Lycideops'' with ''

Tetracynodon ''Tetracynodon'' is an extinct genus of therocephalian. Fossils of ''Tetracynodon'' have been found in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Two species are known: the type species ''T. tenuis'' from the Late Permian and the species ''T. darti'' from ...

'' and '' Choerosaurus''. The clade including these three genera was called

Baurioidea Lopingian first a ...

, and ''Lycideops'' was the most basal member of the group. Characteristics that unite ''Lycideops'' with ''Tetracynodon'' and ''Choerosaurus'' include the presence of five

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

s on each side of the lower jaw (a derived characteristic given that most other

eutherocephalia Eutherocephalia ("true beast head") is an extinct clade of advanced therocephalian therapsids. Eutherocephalians are distinguished from the lycosuchids and scylacosaurids, two early therocephalian families. While lycosuchids and scyalosaurids ...

ns have four), a

lacrimal bone The lacrimal bones are two small and fragile bones of the facial skeleton; they are roughly the size of the little fingernail and situated at the front part of the medial wall of the orbit. They each have two surfaces and four borders. Several bon ...

that touches the

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 ...

, and a contact between the

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 ...

and the

vomer The vomer (; ) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxillary bones. The vomer forms ...

in the palate. Below is a

from the analysis:

References

Baurioidea Therocephalia genera Lopingian synapsids of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1931 Taxa named by Robert Broom Lopingian genus first appearances Lopingian genus extinctions {{paleo-therapsid-stub