Tapinocephalus

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Tapinocephalus
Fossil range: Middle Permian

Kingdom:	Animalia
Division:	Amniota
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Superclass:	Tetrapoda
Class:	Synapsida
Order:	Therapsida
Suborder:	Dinocephalia
Family:	Tapinocephalidae
Subfamily:	Tapinocephalinae
Genus:	Tapinocephalus Owen, 1876

Binomial name

Tapinocephalus atherstonei
Owen 1876

Tapinocephalus is a genus of large herbivorous dinocephalian that lived during the Middle Permian Period. These stocky, barrel-bodied animals were characterised by a massive bony skull roof and short weak snout. It is thought that, like the rest of the members of its family, the animals engaged in head-butting intraspecific behavior, possibly for territory or mates.

The fossil remains (skull and postcranial elements) of Tapinocephalus are known from the Lower, Middle, and Upper part of the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone ( Capitanian age) of the Lower Beaufort Beds of the South African Karoo. Only the type species, T. atherstonei is now considered valid for this genus.

In life, these animals were over 3 meters (10 ft) in length and weighed around 1.5 to 2 metric tonnes (1.6 to 2 short tons), making them among the largest animals of their time.

Keratocephalus and Moschops are closely related contemporary forms, of similar size and habits.

[edit] References

Boonstra, L.D. 1956, "The skull of Tapinocephalus and its near relatives" Annals of the South African Museum, 43 Part 3 pp. 137-169, 17 figs, plate 4.
----- 1969. The fauna of the Tapinocephalus Zone (Beaufort beds of the Karoo). Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 56:1–73.
King, Gillian M., 1988 "Anomodontia" Part 17 C, Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology, Gutsav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart and New York.