''Tapinocephalus'' ("low, depressed head") 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 large

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat n ...

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. ...

ns that lived during the Middle

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 ...

Period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

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 ...

. 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 ...

, ''Tapinocephalus atherstonei'' is now considered valid for this genus.

Discovery and naming

Fossils of ''Tapinocephalus atherstonii'' were collected and donated to the British Museum by

William Guybon Atherstone William Guybon Atherstone (; 1814–1898) was a medical practitioner, naturalist and geologist, one of the pioneers of South African geology and a member of the Cape Parliament. Life He arrived in South Africa with his parents as 1820 Sett ...

. They were described by

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkabl ...

, who described and named the species in 1876. He initially considered it a close relative of ''

Pareiasaurus ''Pareiasaurus'' (from , "cheek" and , "lizard") is an extinct genus of Pareiasauromorpha, pareiasauromorph reptile from the Permian period. It was a typical member of its family (biology), family, the pareiasaurids, which take their name from th ...

'' and classified both as members of Dinosauria. Based on the only remains of the skull known at the time—a poorly-preserved partial snout—he believed it had a low, broad skull similar to

labyrinthodonts "Labyrinthodontia" (Greek language, Greek, 'maze-toothed') is an informal grouping of Extinction, extinct predatory amphibians which were major components of ecosystems in the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras (about 390 to 150 million years ...

. Owen accordingly named it ''Tapinocephalus'', from Greek ταπεινός "low, depressed" and κεφαλή "head".

Description

These stocky, barrel-bodied animals were characterised by a massive bony skull roof and short weak snout. It is thought that, like other

tapinocephalians The Tapinocephalia are one of the major groups of dinocephalian therapsids and the major herbivorous group. Tapinocephalia has been found to consist of three clades: Styracocephalidae, Titanosuchidae, and the very successful Tapinocephalidae. Not ...

, they engaged in intraspecific head-butting, possibly to compete for

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

or mates. In life, they were over in length and massed around , making them among the largest animals of their time. ''Tapinocephalus atherstonei'' is known from a number of skulls and postcranial bones. The skull is large with a heavily pachyostotic skull roof, a massive bony frontals and a short weak ''

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 ...

''-like snout.

Distribution

The

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

remains (

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

and postcranial elements) of ''Tapinocephalus'' are known from the Lower, Middle, and Upper part of the ''Tapinocephalus'' Assemblage Zone ( Capitanian age) of the Lower Beaufort Beds of the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

Taxonomy

''Taurops'' is considered as a synonym of ''Tapinocephalus''. '' Phocosaurus megischion'' is another synonym differing only in that the transition from the frontals to the snout is not abrupt.

Paleoecology

''Tapinocephalus'' fossils are found in the ''Diictodon''–''Styracocephalus'' subzone of the ''Tapinocephalus'' Assemblage Zone, of which it is the namesake. It is not particularly common. It was one of several tapinocephalids in the ecosystem.

References

Sources

* Boonstra, L.D. 1956, "The skull of ''Tapinocephalus'' and its near relatives" ''Annals of the South African Museum'', 43 Part 3 pp. 137–169, 17 figs, plate 4. * 1969. The fauna of the ''Tapinocephalus'' Zone (Beaufort beds of the Karoo). ''Ann. S. Afr. Mus.'' 56:1–73. * King, Gillian M., 1988 "Anomodontia" Part 17 C, Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology, Gutsav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart and New York.

External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q134559 Tapinocephalia Prehistoric therapsid genera Guadalupian synapsids of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1876 Taxa named by Richard Owen Capitanian life