Tritheledontidae

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Tritheledontids
Temporal range: Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic
restoration of Pachygenelus monus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Synapsida
Order: Therapsida
Suborder: Cynodontia
Infraorder: Eucynodontia
Superfamily: Probainognathia
(Unranked)Chiniquodontoidea
Family: Tritheledontidae
Genera
See list at left

The Tritheledontidae or tritheledontids, also known as ictidosaurs,[1] were small to medium-sized (about 10 or 20 cm long[1]) cynodonts. They were extremely mammal-like, highly specialized cynodonts, although they still retained a very few reptilian anatomical traits. Tritheledontids were mainly carnivorous or insectivorous, though some species may have developed omnivorous traits. Their skeletons show that they had a close relationship to mammals. Tritheledontids or their closest relatives may have given rise to primitive mammals. The tritheledontids were one of the longest lived non-mammalian therapsid lineages, living from late Triassic to the Jurassic period. Tritheledontids became extinct in the Jurassic period, possibly due to competition with prehistoric mammals such as the triconodonts. They are known from finds in South America and South Africa, indicating that they may have lived only on the supercontinent of Gondwana. The family Tritheledontidae was named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1912.[2] The family is often misspelled "Trithelodontidae".

Genera

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Family Trithelodontidae". Retrieved December 31, 2008. 
  2. Broom, R. (1912). "On a new type of cynodont from the Stormberg". Annals of the South African Museum 7: 334–336.  May be downloaded from: http://archive.org/details/annalsofsouthafr07sout
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