Knoxosaurus

Knoxosaurus
Temporal range: Middle Permian, 270 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: incertae sedis
Genus: Knoxosaurus
Olson, 1962
Type species
Knoxosaurus niteckii
Olson, 1962

Knoxosaurus is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsids containing the species Knoxosaurus niteckii that existed approximately 279.5 to 268 million years ago.[1] It was named by American paleontologist Everett C. Olson in 1962 on the basis of fragmentary fossils from Middle Permian-age deposits in the San Angelo Formation of Texas in the United States.[2] Olson placed Knoxosaurus in a new infraorder called Eotheriodontia, which he considered a transitional group between the more reptile-like "pelycosaurs" and the more mammal-like therapsids. Knoxosaurus and Olson's other eotheriodonts were later considered to be undiagnostic remains of basal synapsids, no more closely related to therapsids than are other pelycosaur-grade synapsids.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Fossilworks: Knoxosaurus niteckii". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  2. ^ Olson, E.C. (1962). "Late Permian terrestrial vertebrates, USA and USSR". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 52 (2): 1–224. doi:10.2307/1005904.
  3. ^ Sidor, C.A.; Hopson, J.A. (1995). "The taxonomic status of the Upper Permian eutheriodont therapsids of the San Angelo Formation (Guadalupian), Texas". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15 (3 Suppl.): 53A. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011277.