Niaftasuchus Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Clade: | Therapsida |
Genus: | †Niaftasuchus Ivakhnenko, 1990 |
Species: | †N. zekkeli
|
Binomial name | |
†Niaftasuchus zekkeli Ivakhnenko, 1990
|
Niaftasuchus is an extinct genus of therapsids. Its type and only named species is Niaftasuchus zekkeli.
Niaftasuchus had distinctive dentition. It has been interpreted as one of the earliest known herbivorous therapsids. It lived during the Guadalupian epoch of the Permian in what is now Russia, and inhabited an environment alongside some of the last non-therapsid synapsids, such as the caseasaur Ennatosaurus and the varanopid Mesenosaurus.
Niaftasuchus is one of several enigmatic early therapsids from Russia that may be based on juvenile material. Its phylogenetic affinities are controversial; it has been classified as a biarmosuchian, dinocephalian, or anomodont, and it has also been suggested to belong to a lineage of its own.