Dimetrodon borealis

Dimetrodon borealis
Temporal range: Middle Permian, 270 Ma
↓
Holotype jaw of D. borealis displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Family: †Sphenacodontidae
Genus: †Dimetrodon
Species:
†D. borealis
Binomial name
†Dimetrodon borealis
Leidy, 1854
Synonyms
  • Bathygnathus borealis Leidy, 1854

Dimetrodon borealis, formerly known[1] as Bathygnathus borealis, is an extinct species of pelycosaur-grade synapsid that lived about 270 million years ago (Ma) in the Early Middle Permian. A partial maxilla or upper jaw bone from Prince Edward Island in Canada is the only known fossil of Bathygnathus. The maxilla was discovered around 1845 during the course of a well excavation in Spring Brook in the New London area and its significance was recognized by geologists John William Dawson and Joseph Leidy. It was originally described by Leidy in 1854 as the lower jaw of a dinosaur, making it the first purported dinosaur to have been found in Canada, and the second to have been found in all of North America (the first was Clepsysaurus from Pennsylvania, now known to be a phytosaur rather than a dinosaur).[2] The bone was later identified as that of a pelycosaur. Although its current classification as a sphenacodontid synapsid was not recognized until after the discovery of its more famous relative Dimetrodon in the 1870s, Bathygnathus is notable for being the first discovered sphenacodontid.[3] A 2015 study by the researchers from the University of Toronto Mississauga, Carleton University and the Royal Ontario Museum reclassified the species into the genus Dimetrodon.[4]

  1. ^ "News Room | University of Toronto Mississauga". www.utm.utoronto.ca.
  2. ^ Spalding, D.A.E. (1995). "Bathygnathus, Canada's first "dinosaur"". In Sarjeant, W.A.S. (ed.). Vertebrate Fossils and the Evolution of Scientific Concepts. Taylor & Francis US. pp. 245–254. ISBN 2881249965.
  3. ^ Benson, R. B. J. (2012). "Interrelationships of basal synapsids: Cranial and postcranial morphological partitions suggest different topologies". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 10: 601–624. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.631042.
  4. ^ "Canuckosaur! First Canadian 'dinosaur' becomes Dimetrodon borealis". phys.org.