Cynodont

Cynodont
Temporal range: Permian – Upper Triassic
Belesodon
with massive attachments for jaw muscles
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Clade: Eutheriodontia
Clade: Cynodontia
Cast of the skull of Kayentatherium. It had a skull about 10cm (4 inches) in length.

The Cynodonts are a large clade in Therapsida. Cynodonts, one of the most diverse groups of therapsids, are named after their dog-like teeth. It is sometimes considered an epiclass instead of a clade though.

The taxon is a clade which includes modern mammals and most of their extinct close relatives.

The cynodonts lived in all continents, and their fossil record begins in the Upper Permian 256 million years ago.

The extinct members of the group were victims of the End-Triassic extinction event, but the line that led to the mammals survived.

References

  1. ↑ Kermack D. 1982. A new tritylodont from the Kayenta Formation of Arizona. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 76 1-17.
  2. ↑ Sues, Hans-Dieter & F.A. Jenkins 2006. The postcranial skeleton of Kayentatherium wellesi from the Lower Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona and the phylogenetic significance of postcranial features in tritylodontid cynodonts. In: Carrano Matthew T; Gaudin T.J; Blob R.W. and Wible J.R., Amniote Paleobiology: perspectivers on the evolution of mammals, birds, and reptiles. University of Chicago Press. 114-152
  3. ↑ PaleoBiology Database: Cynodontia, basic info
  4. ↑ Ruta, M., Botha-Brink, J., Mitchell, S.A., Benton, M.J. 2013. The radiation of cynodonts and the ground plan of mammalian morphological diversity Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280: 20131865. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1865 Reference page.