Herpetoskylax
Name:
Herpetoskylax
(reptile puppy).
Phonetic: Her-pe-toe-sky-laks.
Named By: C. A. Sidor & B. S.
Rubidge - 2006.
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Therapsida, Biarmosuchia.
Species: H. hopsoni (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull 13 centimetres long. Total length
roughly estimated about 1 meter long.
Known locations: South Africa - Teekloof
Formation.
Time period: Wuchiapingian of the Permian.
Fossil representation: Skulls and mandible (lower
jaw), from two individuals.
Herpetoskylax was a biarmosuchian (relative to the better known Biarmosuchus) therapsid that lived in South Africa towards the end of the Mid Permian period. So far the genus is only known from skulls and lower jaws, but as a biarmosuchian, Herpetoskylax would have been a predator.
Further reading
- Herpetoskylax hopsoni, a new biarmosuchian
(Therapsida:
Biarmosuchia) from the Beaufort Group of South Africa, by C. A.
Sidor & B. S. Rubidge - In Amniote Paleobiology,
prespetives on the Evolution of mammals, birds and reptiles -
M. T. Carrano, T. J. gaudin, R. W. Blob &
J. R. Wible [eds] - Chicago University Press. - 2006.
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