Cynodraco,[a] also spelled Cynodracon or Cynodrakon,[1] is a dubious genus of non-mammalian therapsid, probably gorgonopsian, from the late Permian of South Africa. Two species of the genus have been named, Cynodraco serridens and Cynodraco major.[2] Its fossils have been found in the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone,[3] which dates to the Wuchiapingian age of the late Permian.[4] Cynodraco was one of the first gorgonopsian taxa named, alongside Gorgonops and Lycosaurus, which were named in the same publication.[5]
| Cynodraco Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Clade: | †Gorgonopsia |
| Genus: | †Cynodraco Owen, 1876 |
| Type species | |
| Cynodraco serridens Owen, 1876
| |
| Referred species | |
| |
History of discovery
editFossils of Cynodraco were discovered in the Karoo of South Africa by Andrew Geddes Bain,[6] who gave them to the British Museum in 1853.[7] Richard Owen described Cynodraco on the basis of these fossils in 1876 and classified them in two species: Cynodraco serridens and Cynodraco major.[2] In one of his two 1876 papers on the genus, he spells it Cynodraco;[8] in the other, he spells it Cynodracon.[2] Owen found the mammalian characters of the humerus of Cynodraco and the similarity of its teeth to those of the saber-toothed cat Machairodus to be remarkable.[9] Seeley later noted that the humerus could not be proved to belong to the same species as the skull fragments on which the genus is based.[10] In 1890, Richard Lydekker regarded C. serridens as the type species of the genus and synonymized C. major with it.[11] Denise Sigogneau-Russell regarded Cynodraco as a possible gorgonopsian of uncertain affinity,[12][3] an identification which remains accepted.[1]
Footnotes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Kammerer 2015, p. 42.
- ^ a b c Owen 1876a, pp. 18–20.
- ^ a b Sigogneau-Russell 1989, p. 115.
- ^ Smith 2020, p. 188.
- ^ Kammerer 2015, p. 41.
- ^ Owen 1876b, p. 95.
- ^ Lydekker 1890, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Owen 1876b, p. 95, 97–101.
- ^ Owen 1876b.
- ^ Seeley 1894, p. 987.
- ^ Lydekker 1890, p. 74.
- ^ Sigogneau 1968, p. 46.
Bibliography
edit- Kammerer, C. F. (2015). "Cranial osteology of Arctognathus curvimola, a short-snouted gorgonopsian from the Late Permian of South Africa". Papers in Palaeontology. 1 (1): 41–58. Bibcode:2015PPal....1...41K. doi:10.1002/spp2.1002. ISSN 2056-2802.
- Lydekker, R. (1890). Catalogue of the fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part IV. Containing the orders Anomodontia, Ecaudata, Caudata, and Labyrinthodontia; and supplement. London: Taylor and Francis.
- Owen, R. (1876a). Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the fossil Reptilia of South Africa in the collection of the British Museum. London: Taylor and Francis.
- Owen, R. (1876b). "Evidence of a carnivorous reptile (Cynodraco major, Ow.) about the size of a lion, with remarks thereon". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 32 (1–4): 95–102. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1876.032.01-04.14. S2CID 131211617.
- Seeley, H. G. (1894). "Researches on the structure, organization, and classification of the fossil Reptilia.—Part IX., Section 1. On the Therosuchia". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B. 185: 987–1018. JSTOR 91788.
- Sigogneau, D. (1968). "On the classification of the Gorgonopsia". Palaeontologia Africana. 11: 33–46.
- Sigogneau-Russell, D. (1989). Wellnhofer, Peter (ed.). Theriodonta I: Phthinosuchia, Biarmosuchia, Eotitanosuchia, Gorgonopsia. Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. New York: Gustav Fischer Verlag. ISBN 0-89574-292-6.
- Smith, R.M.H. (2020-06-01). "Biostratigraphy of the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone (Beaufort Group, Karoo Supergroup), South Africa". South African Journal of Geology. 123 (2): 181–190. Bibcode:2020SAJG..123..181S. doi:10.25131/sajg.123.0013. eISSN 1996-8590. ISSN 1012-0750.
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