Patranomodon
| Patranomodon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Synapsida |
| Order: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | Anomodontia |
| Genus: | Patranomodon |
Patranomodon is an extinct genus of primitive anomodont. Patronomodon is primitive in that it retains a complete set of teeth in both jaws, in contrast to their descendants, the dicynodonts, in which the dentition is reduced to only a single pair of tusks (an in many cases no teeth at all), with their jaws covered by a horny beak similar to that of the modern tortoise although they are in no way closely related to each other. It was the size of a mongoose. Its discovery from the earliest terrestrial rocks of Gondwana (from Prince Albert in the southern Cape Province of South Africa) has shown that this group of herbivores originated in Gondwana rather than Laurasia, as had previously been supposed, and spread to other Pangaean continents.
References
- McCarthy, T. & Rubidge, B. 2005. The story of Earth & Life. A southern African perspective on a 4.6-billion-year journey. Struik Publishers, Cape Town. 333pp.
See also
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