Venyukovioidea

Venyukovioidea
Temporal range: Middle - Late Permian, 267–260 Ma
Life restoration of Venyukovia prima
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Suborder: †Anomodontia
Infraorder: †Venyukovioidea
Watson and Romer, 1956
Genera

Venyukovioidea is an infraorder of anomodont therapsids related to dicynodonts from the Permian of Russia. They have also been known as 'Venjukovioidea', as well as by the similar names 'Venyukoviamorpha' or 'Venjukoviamorpha' in literature. This in part owes to a misspelling by Russian palaeontologist Ivan Efremov in 1940 when he mistakenly spelt Venyukovia, the namesake of the group, with a 'j' instead of a 'y' (i.e. 'Venjukovia'), which permeated through subsequent therapsid literature before the mistake was caught and corrected.[1] The order Ulemicia has also been coined for a similar taxonomic concept in Russian scientific literature, which notably excludes Suminia and Parasuminia.[2]

Venyukovioidea includes the genera Venyukovia, Otsheria, Ulemica, Suminia and Parasuminia, all from Western Siberia.[3] Historically, some of these genera have been placed in various families and subfamilies, including the Venyukoviidae/'Venjukoviidae', Otsheriidae, and Ulemiciidae. However, the internal lower-level relationships of the venyukovioids have not been fully resolved and so the utility and composition of these individual subgroups is unclear. Furthermore, although the group uses the '–oidea' suffix typical of superfamilies in Linnean taxonomy, it was originally coined as an infraorder by D. M. S. Watson and Alfred Romer in 1956.[4] Venyukovioidea was later cladistically defined by palaeontologists Christian F. Kammerer and Kenneth D. Angielczyk in 2009 as all anomodonts closer to Venyukovia than to Galeops or Dicynodon, distinguishing its contents from other anomodonts regarded as either 'dromasaurs' or dicynodonts.[1]

  1. ^ a b Kammerer, C.F.; Angielczyk, K.D. (2009). "A proposed higher taxonomy of anomodont therapsids" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2018: 1–24. doi:10.11646/ZOOTAXA.2018.1.1.
  2. ^ Ivakhnenko, M. F. (2008). "Cranial morphology and evolution of Permian Dinomorpha (Eotherapsida) of eastern Europe". Paleontological Journal. 42: 859–995. doi:10.1134/S0031030108090013.
  3. ^ Angielczyk, Kenneth D.; Kammerer, Christian F. (2018). "Non-Mammalian synapsids: the deep roots of the mammalian family tree". In Zachos, Frank E.; Asher, Robert J. (eds.). Mammalian Evolution, Diversity and Systematics. Berlin: De Gruyter. p. 151. ISBN 9783110275902.
  4. ^ Watson, D. M. S.; Romer, A. S. (1956). "A classification of therapsid reptiles". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 114 (2): 37–89.