''Moschognathus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

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 ...

of dinocephalian therapsid in 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 ...

Tapinocephalidae Tapinocephalidae was an advanced family of tapinocephalians. It is defined as the clade containing ''Ulemosaurus'', ''Tapinocaninus'', and the Tapinocephalinae. They are known from both Russia and South Africa. In all probability, the Tapinocepha ...

. The genus includes only 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 ...

''M. whaitsi'', named by

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

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 1914. It was a short-snouted tapinocephalid, closely related to and resembling the well-known genus ''

Moschops ''Moschops'' (Greek for "calf face") is an extinct genus of therapsids that lived in the Guadalupian Epoch (geology), epoch, around 265–260 million years ago. They were heavily built plant eaters, and they may have lived partly in water, as hi ...

'', but its skull is less thickened overall has a relatively longer and shallower snout by comparison. Indeed, ''Moschognathus'' has typically been regarded as a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''Moschops'' (e.g. by King, 1988 and Atayman ''et al''., 2009) since 1969 after

Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra (1905 – 1975) was a South African palaeontologist whose work focused on the mammal-like reptiles of the Middle ( ''Tapinocephalus'' Assemblage Zone) and Late Permian, whose fossil remains are common in the South African Kar ...

sunk ''Moschognathus'' into ''Moschops'', albeit retained as its own doubtfully valid species. However, researchers in the 21st century have expressed doubt over this synonymy and suggested that ''Moschognathus'' is a distinct taxon after all, including first by Christian Kammerer in a 2009 Ph.D. thesis and formally in 2015 by Alessandra D. S. Boos and colleagues (including Kammerer) in 2015. ''Moschognathus'' has since began to re-enter scientific literature of dinocephalians as a valid name and treated distinct from ''Moschops''. The

holotype specimen A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was Species description, formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illus ...

AMNH The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interco ...

FARB 5602, is a partial skeleton including the upper jaw tips, mandibles, vertebrae (including a complete cervical series from the neck), ribs, and the right pelvis and femur. In addition to the holotype specimen, a complete skull and mandibles have tentatively been assigned to ''Moschognathus''. This specimen, AM 4950, was initially identified as a juvenile ''

Anteosaurus ''Anteosaurus'' (meaning "Antaeus lizard") is an extinct genus of large carnivorous dinocephalian synapsid. It lived at the end of the Guadalupian (= Middle Permian) during the Capitanian age, about 265 to 260 million years ago in what is now Sou ...

'' prior to preparation, but was subsequently identified as a subadult ''Moschops'' by Julien Benoit and colleagues in 2016 and again in 2017. This skull was argued to belong instead to ''Moschognathus'' in a Ph.D. thesis by Saniye Neumann, and this proposal was formally adopted in subsequent literature.

Palaeobiology

A palaeopathological juvenile specimen of ''M. whaitsi'' has been found suggesting that juveniles of the species engaged in play fighting.

References

Tapinocephalia Prehistoric therapsid genera Guadalupian synapsids of Africa Permian South Africa Fossils of South Africa Fossil taxa described in 1914 Taxa named by Robert Broom {{Paleo-therapsid-stub