Anteosauridae
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| iAnteosauridae/Anteosaurinae |
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Anteosaurus |
The Anteosauridae or Anteosaurinae are a family (e.g. Boonstra 1963, 1969, Carroll 1988) or subfamily (e.g. Hopson & Barghusen 1986, King 1988) of very large carnivorous Dinocephalia (Anteosaurs) that are known from the Middle Permian of Russia (Doliosauriscus, Titanophoneus) and South Africa (Anteosaurus). The Russian genera were previously included by Efremov in the Brithopodidae.
They are characterised by very large pointed incisors and canines, bulbous spatulate (spoon shaped) postcanines, a very strongly upturned margin of the premaxilla, so the front of mouth curves strongly upwards, and a long very robust lower jaw (Boonstra 1963).
The Anteosauridae or Anteosaurinae are distinguished from more primitive Brithopodids by the presence of a large thickened region or "boss" on the side of the angle of the lower jaw; this was probably used used in intraspecific behaviour. In Doliosauriscus and Anteosaurus, not only was this boss very prominent, but the bones were very thick and rugose. The same situation is found in the herbivorous Tapinocephalidae, and it can be assumed that these animals engaged in head-butting behaviour. (Hopson & Barghusen 1986)
These animals were by far the largest predators of the Permian period, with skulls reaching 80 cm in length in adult individuals, far larger than the biggest gorgonopsian.
[edit] References
- Barghusen, H.R., 1975. A review of fighting adaptation in dinocephalians (Reptilia, Therapsida). Paleobiology 12:95–311.
- Boonstra, L. D. 1963, Diversity within the South African Dinocephalia. S. Afr. J. Sci. 59: 196-206.
- ----- 1969, "The Fauna of the Tapincephalus Zone (Beaufort Beds of the Karoo)," Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 56 (1) 1-73, pp. 35-38
- Carroll, R. L., 1988, Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, WH Freeman & Co.
- Hopson, J.A. and Barghusen, H.R., 1986, An analysis of therapsid relationships in N Hotton, III, PD MacLean, JJ Roth and EC Roth, The Ecology and Biology of Mammal-like Reptiles, Smithsonian Institute Press, pp. 83-106
- King, G.M., 1988, "Anomodontia" Part 17 C, Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology, Gutsav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart and New York,
