''Rhopalodon'' 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 ...

of therapsids from the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It has been variously classified as a

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

, a

dinocephalia Dinocephalians (terrible heads) are a clade of large-bodied early therapsids that flourished in the Early and Middle Permian between 279.5 and 260 million years ago (Ma), but became extinct during the Capitanian mass extinction event. ...

n, or another branch of amniotes. ''Rhopalodon'' is notable for being among the first "reptiles" mentioned in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

''. T.H. Huxley wrote of this animal, among others, in the inaugural issue of the magazine, in November 1869. He gave the age of this animal and of the contemporary '' Deuterosaurus'' as

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

, but both are now known to have lived during the Middle Permian. According to Tverdokhlebov ''et al.'' (2005), ''Rhopalodon'' was a medium-sized terrestrial dinocephalian herbivore that was characteristic of the early Tatarian Urzhumian biostratigraphic zone (Bolshekinelskaya and Amanakskaya svitas).Valentin P. Tverdokhlebov, Galina I. Tverdokhlebova, Alla V. Minikh, Mikhail V. Surkov, and Michael J. Benton, (2005) Upper Permian vertebrates and their sedimentological context in the South Urals, Russia, ''Earth-Science Reviews'' 69 27-77 55

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* * * Dinocephalia Prehistoric therapsid genera Guadalupian synapsids Extinct animals of Russia Fossil taxa described in 1841 Guadalupian genus first appearances Guadalupian genus extinctions {{Paleo-therapsid-stub

See also

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Further reading

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