Charassognathidae

Charassognathus (meaning 'notched jaw') is an extinct genus of Late Permian cynodonts. Described in 2007 from a locality near Fraserburg, South Africa, Charassognathus is one of the earliest and most basal cynodonts. It is known only from the holotype, which dates from the Late Permian Period. The type and only species is C. gracilis. The holotype (SAM-PK-K 10369), found in the Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone of the Teekloof Formation, is made up of a crushed skull, partial lower jaw and one leg.

Charassognathidae is an extinct family of basal cynodonts known from the Late Permian of South Africa and Zambia. It was named in 2016 by the palaeontologist Christian F. Kammerer, who defined it as all taxa more closely related to Charassognathus gracilis than to Dvinia prima, Galesaurus planiceps or Procynosuchus delaharpeae. The family contains the genera Charassognathus, Abdalodon and Nshimbodon, with the latter two making up the subfamily Abdalodontinae.

Abdalodon is an extinct genus of late Permian cynodonts, known by its only species A. diastematicus. Abdalodon, along with the genus Charassognathus, belongs to the clade Charassognathidae. This clade represents the earliest known cynodonts, and is the first known radiation of this group during the Permian.