Name: Youngina.
Phonetic: Yun-gyn-ah.
Named By: Robert Broom - 1914.
Synonyms: Acanthotoposaurus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Diapsida,
Neodiapsida, Younginidae.
Species: Y. capensis (type).
Diet: Insectivore/Carnivore.
Size: Skull up to 7 centimetres long. Body
roughly estimated at around 1.4 meters long.
Known locations: South Africa - Balfour
Formation & Teekloof Formation.
Time period: Wuchiapingian to Changhsingian of the
Permian.
Fossil representation: A few individuals.
Youngina is a genus of diapsid reptile that lived in what is now South Africa during the late Permian. The skull is roughly triangular with a snout that is about half the total length of the skull. The teeth are conical and well developed, and may have been used for killing larger invertebrates and small vertebrates.
Further reading
- A new Thecodont Reptile - Proceedings of the Zoological Society
of London 1914:1072-1077 - Robert Broom - 1914.
- Notes on the skull of Youngina capensis Broom
- Journal of
Geology, 44 (4): 523-533 - E. C. Olsen - 1936.
- The morphology and relationships of Youngina capensis
Broom and
Prolacerta broomi Parrington - Palaeontologia Africana,
18:89-131 - C. E. Gow - 1975.
- The braincase of Youngina capensis
(Reptilia: Diapsida;
Permian), N. Jahrb. - Geol. Pal�ont. Monats. 1984:
193-203 - S. E. Evans - 1987.
- Acanthotoposaurus bremneri and the origin of
the Triassic
archosauromorphreptile fauna of South Africa - South African
journal of science, vol. 96, no. 8. - R. R. Reisz,
S. P. Modesto & D. Scott - 2000.
- The enigmatic diapsid Acerosodontosaurus piveteaui
(Reptilia:
Neodiapsida) from the Upper Permian of Madagascar and the paraphyly
of "younginiform" reptiles - Canadian Journal of Earth
Sciences, 46 (9): 651-661 - Bickelmann, M�ller &
Reisz - 2009.
- The braincase of Youngina capensis
(Reptilia, Diapsida):
New insights from high-resolution CT scanning of the holotype. -
Paleonotologica Electronica 13(3) - N . M. Gardner,
C. M. Holliday & F. R. O'Keefe - 2010.