Nanictidopidae Temporal range: Late Permian
| |
---|---|
Restoration of the nanictidopid Purlovia maxima | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Clade: | Therapsida |
Clade: | †Therocephalia |
Clade: | †Eutherocephalia |
Family: | †Nanictidopidae Watson and Romer, 1956 |
Genera | |
Nanictidopidae is an extinct family of therocephalian therapsids from the Late Permian. Two genera are currently included in the family, Nanictidops from South Africa and Purlovia from Russia. Nanictidopids have short skulls and were probably herbivorous.
Although Ivakhnenko 2011 considered Nanictidops and Purlovia closely related and classified them as the only two members of Nanictidopidae as they shared a wide temporal region, Liu and Abdala 2020 found little relation between the two genera and instead classifies Nanictidops as the basalmost member of Baurioidea, while Purlovia forms an exclusively Laurasian clade with the Chinese Caodeyao instead.[1]