Emydops

Emydops
Temporal range: Middle Permian–Late Permian
Skull at the Royal Ontario Museum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Suborder: †Anomodontia
Clade: †Dicynodontia
Family: †Emydopidae
Cluver and King, 1983
Genus: †Emydops
Broom, 1912
Species
  • †E. arctatus (Owen, 1876 [originally Kistecephalus arctatus]) (type)
  • †E. oweni Fröbisch and Reisz, 2008
Synonyms
  • "Aulacocephalus" Seeley 1898 (preoccupied)
  • Orophicephalus Broom 1904
  • Emydopsis Broom 1921
  • Storthyggnathus Janensch 1952

Emydops is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsids from the Middle Permian to Late Permian of what is now South Africa. The genus is generally small and herbivorous, sharing the dicynodont synapomorphy of bearing two tusks. In the following years, the genus grew to include fourteen species. Many of these species were erected on the basis of differences in the teeth and the positioning of the frontal and parietal bones.[1] A 2008 study narrowed Emydops down to two species, E. arctatus (first described by English paleontologist Richard Owen as Kistecephalus arctatus in 1876) and the newly described E. oweni.[2]

Skulls of Endothiodon whaitsi and Emydops arctatus (beside the bottom of the scale) to scale
  1. ^ Ray, S. (2001). "Small Permian dicynodonts from India" (PDF). Paleontological Research. 5 (3): 177–191.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Fröbisch, J.; Reisz, R.R. (2008). "A new species of Emydops (Synapsida, Anomodontia) and a discussion of dental variability and pathology in dicynodonts". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28 (3): 770–787. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28[770:ANSOES]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 85594758.