Category
page 1Taxa named by Robert Broom

Therapsida
Therapsida is a clade comprising a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals and their ancestors and close relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more underneath the body, resulting in a more "standing" quadrupedal posture, as opposed to the lower sprawling posture of many reptiles and amphibians.

mountain pygmy possum
species of mammal

Robert Broom
South African doctor and paleontologist (1866–1951)

Grant's golden mole
species of mammal

De Winton's golden mole
species of mammal

Moschops
Moschops (Greek for "calf face") is an extinct genus of therapsids that lived in the Guadalupian epoch, around 265–260 million years ago. They were heavily built plant eaters, and they may have lived partly in water, as hippopotamuses do. They had short, thick heads and might have competed by head-butting each other. Their elbow joints allowed them to walk with a more mammal-like gait rather than crawling. Their remains were found in the Karoo region of South Africa, belonging to the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone. Therapsids, such as Moschops, are synapsids, the dominant land animals in the P

Sclater's golden mole
species of mammal

Duthie's golden mole
species of mammal

Euparkeria
Euparkeria (; meaning "Parker's good animal", named in honor of W. K. Parker) is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptile from the Triassic of South Africa. Euparkeria is close to the ancestry of Archosauria, the reptile group that includes crocodilians, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs (including birds).

Gunning's golden mole
species of mammal

Procynosuchus
Procynosuchus (Greek: "Before dog crocodile" or "raccoon crocodile") is an extinct genus of cynodonts from the Late Permian. It is considered to be one of the earliest and most basal cynodonts. It was 60 cm (2 ft) long.

Visagie's golden mole
species of mammal
Algoasaurus
Algoasaurus (; "Algoa Bay reptile") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian to early Valanginian ages) Upper Kirkwood Formation of Cape Province, South Africa, specifically near a town called Despatch. Only one species, A. bauri, is known.
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Lycaenops
Lycaenops ("wolf-face") is a genus of carnivorous therapsids. It lived during the Middle Permian to the early Late Permian, about 260 mya, in what is now South Africa.

Erythrosuchus africanus
Erythrosuchus (from , 'red' and , 'crocodile') is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptiles from the early to middle Triassic of South Africa. Remains have been found in the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo of South Africa. In the Late Triassic, the ecological niche left by Erythrosuchus was filled by archosaurs including Saurosuchus and Postosuchus.
Geranosaurus
Geranosaurus (meaning "crane reptile") is a genus of heterodontosaurid ornithischian dinosaur from the Early Jurassic. The type and only species is G. atavus.
Burramys
Burramys is a genus of the family Burramyidae, and is represented by one living and 3 extinct (fossil) species. It is one of two genera of pygmy possum, the other being Cercartetus.

Gyposaurus
Gyposaurus (meaning "vulture lizard", referring to the outdated hypothesis that prosauropods were carnivores) is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the early Jurassic of South Africa. It is usually considered to represent juveniles of other prosauropods, but "G." sinensis is regarded as a possibly valid species.

Dinogorgon
Dinogorgon is a genus of gorgonopsid from the Late Permian of South Africa and Tanzania. The generic name Dinogorgon is derived from Greek, meaning "terrible gorgon", while its species name rubidgei is taken from the surname of renowned Karoo paleontologist, Professor Bruce Rubidge, who has contributed to much of the research conducted on therapsids of the Karoo Basin. The type species of the genus is D. rubidgei.

Bauria
Bauria is an extinct genus of the suborder Therocephalia that existed during the Early and Middle Triassic period, around 246-251 million years ago. It belonged to the family Bauriidae. Bauria was probably a herbivore or omnivore. It lived in South Africa, specifically in the Burgersdorp Formation in South Africa.
Dinopithecus
Dinopithecus ("terrible ape") is an extinct genus of medium to large sized cercopithecoid primates, closely related to baboons, that lived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs in South Africa and Ethiopia. It was named by British paleontologist Robert Broom in 1937. The only species currently recognized is Dinopithecus ingens, as D. quadratirostris has been reassigned to the genus Soromandrillus. It is known from several infilled cave sites in South Africa, all of early Pleistocene age, including Skurweberg, Swartkrans (Member 1), and Sterkfontein (Member 4 or 5, but probably member 4).

Milleretta rubidgei
Milleretta is an extinct genus of millerettid stem-group reptile from the Late Permian of what is now South Africa. Fossils have been found in the Balfour Formation. Its only known species is Milleretta rubidgei, although several other species of millerettid have been synonymized with this genus. Milleretta and its close relatives are unique among Paleozoic stem reptiles in that it secondarily closed an upper and lower temporal fenestra during ontogeny.
Elliotsmithia
Elliotsmithia is a small varanopid synapsid found from the late Middle Permian of South Africa. It is the sole basal synapsid "pelycosaur" known from the supercontinent Gondwana and only two specimens have been yielded to date. Its species name longiceps is derived from Latin, meaning "long head". Both known Elliotsmithia fossils were recovered from Abrahamskraal Formation rocks—within the boundaries of the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone—of the lower Beaufort Group. It was named for the late Sir Grafton Elliot Smith in 1937.

Youngina
Youngina (named after John Young (1823–1900)) is an extinct genus of small, lizard-like stem-group reptile from the Late Permian Beaufort Group (Cistecephalus–Daptocephalus assemblage zones) of the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa. Youngina has been the subject of considerable scientific attention due to its basal position within Neodiapsida (having diverged before the last common ancestor of all living reptiles) and its well-preserved skulls, with Youngina seen as providing insight into the plesiomorphic (ancestral) morphology of the last common ancestor of living reptiles.

Moschorhinus
Moschorhinus is an extinct genus of therocephalian synapsid in the family Akidnognathidae with only one species: M. kitchingi, which has been found in the Late Permian to Early Triassic of the South African Karoo Supergroup. It was a large carnivorous therapsid, reaching in total body length with the largest skull comparable to that of a lion in size, and had a broad, blunt snout which bore long, straight canines.
Euchambersia
Euchambersia is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsids that lived during the Late Permian in what is now South Africa and China. The genus contains two species. The type species E. mirabilis was named by paleontologist Robert Broom in 1931 from a skull missing the lower jaw. A second skull, belonging to a probably immature individual, was later described. In 2022, a second species, E. liuyudongi, was named by Jun Liu and Fernando Abdala from a well-preserved skull. It is a member of the family Akidnognathidae, which historically has also been referred by as the synonymous Euchambersiida
Aetonyx
Aetonyx is a dubious genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa. Its only species is A. palustris, which was named by Robert Broom in 1911 based on a fragmentary skeleton from the upper Elliot Formation found near Fouriesburg, Free State Province. Broom considered it as a species of "carnivorous dinosaur". In 1924, Sydney H. Haughton assigned a second specimen to Aetonyx, which is also from Fouriesburg. In 1932, Friedrich von Huene suggested that the species Thecodontosaurus dubius, which Haughton had named in his 1924 paper, is a synonym of Aetonyx palustris.

Heleosaurus
Heleosaurus scholtzi is an extinct species of basal synapsids, known as pelycosaurs, in the family of Varanopidae during the middle Permian. At first H. scholtzi was mistakenly classified as a diapsid. Members of this family were carnivorous and had dermal armor, and somewhat resembled monitor lizards. This family was the most geologically long lived, widespread, and diverse group of early amniotes. To date only two fossils have been found in the rocks of South Africa. One of these fossils is an aggregation of five individuals.

Arctognathus
Arctognathus is an extinct genus of gorgonopsids that throve during the Late Permian in the Karoo basin of what is now South Africa.
Ictidosuchoides
Ictidosuchoides is an extinct genus of ictidosuchid therocephalians. Fossils have been found from the Karoo Basin in South Africa. The genus was previously thought to have been one of the few therocephalians to have survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event in this area, but the putative early Triassic specimens have since been attributed to Promoschorhynchus.
Galechirus
Galechirus is an extinct genus of anomodont therapsids. It was about 30 cm (1 ft) long.

Lycosuchus
Lycosuchus is a genus of early therocephalian (an extinct type of therapsid, the group that modern mammals belong to) that lived roughly 260–258 million years ago, straddling the boundary of the Middle and Late Permian period, from what is now the Karoo Basin of South Africa. The type and only species is L. vanderrieti, named by paleontologist Robert Broom in 1903. Lycosuchus is known from a handful of well-preserved specimens mostly preserving the skull and lower jaw; the holotype specimen itself being a nearly complete and undistorted occluded skull and jaws. Other specimens have revealed mo

Aloposaurus
Aloposaurus is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. It was first named by Robert Broom in 1910, and contains the type species A. gracilis (holotype AMNH 5317), and possibly a second species A. tenuis. This small gorgonopsid had a slender narrow skull only long, with a total body length of .
Burnetiidae
thumb|left|Burnetia mirabilis head
Burnetiidae is an extinct family of biarmosuchian therapsids that lived in the Permian period whose fossils are found in South Africa, Zambia and Russia. It contains Bondoceras, Bullacephalus, Burnetia, Mobaceras, Niuksenitia, Paraburnetia and Proburnetia.
Proablepharus tenuis
species of reptile
Scylacops
Scylacops (meaning "face that tears") is an extinct genus of Gorgonopsia. It was first named by Broom in 1913, and contains two species, S. bigendens, and S. capensis. Its fossils have been found in South Africa and Zambia. It is believed to be closely related to the Gorgonopsian Sauroctonus progressus. Scylacops was a moderately sized Gorgonopsid.
Notoscincus ornatus
species of reptile
Liburnascincus mundivensis
species of reptile
Lydekkerina
Lydekkerina is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyl. It is the type genus of the family Lydekkerinidae. Fossils have been collected from Early Triassic deposits in South Africa and Australia. The type species is L. huxleyi, first described in 1889. While most other stereospondyls were semiaquatic, Lydekkerina was exclusively terrestrial.
Galepus
thumb|left|Galepus jouberti fossil, specimen 5541
thumb|left|Galepus jouberti skull restoration, specimen 5541
Scylacosaurus
thumb|left|Life restoration
Scylacosaurus is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsids that lived during the Permian period. It contains one species Scylacosaurus sclateri.
Emydops
Emydops is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsids from the Middle Permian to Late Permian of what is now South Africa. The genus is generally small and herbivorous, sharing the dicynodont synapomorphy of bearing two tusks. In the following years, the genus grew to include fourteen species. Many of these species were erected on the basis of differences in the teeth and the positioning of the frontal and parietal bones. A 2008 study narrowed Emydops down to two species, E. arctatus (first described by English paleontologist Richard Owen as Cistecephalus arctatus in 1876) and the newly describ
Clelandina
thumb|left|Restoration of C. rubidgei
thumb|left|Referred skull, the holotype of Tigrisaurus pricei
Ictidorhinus
Ictidorhinus is an extinct genus of biarmosuchian therapsids. Fossils have been found from the Dicynodon Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin, South Africa and are of Late Permian age. It had a short snout and proportionally large orbits. These characteristics may be representative of a juvenile animal, possibly of Lycaenodon. However, these two genera are not known to have existed at the same time, making it unlikely for Ictidorhinus material to be from a juvenile form of Lycaenodon.
Equus capensis
extinct species of zebra

Gryponyx africanus
Gryponyx (meaning "hooked-claw") is an extinct genus of massopod sauropodomorph known from southern Free State, central South Africa.
Dromasauria
"Dromasaurs" are an artificial grouping of small anomodont therapsids from the Middle and Late Permian of South Africa. They represent either a paraphyletic grade or a polyphyletic grouping of small non-dicynodont basal anomodonts rather than a clade, and as such are considered an invalid group today. "Dromasaurs" were historically united by their superficially similar appearances that were unlike other known anomodonts. They are all small in size with slender limbs and long tails, and have short skulls with very large eye sockets. "Dromasauria" (sometimes also known as "Dromasauroidea") tradi
Burnetia
Burnetia is an extinct genus of biarmosuchian therapsids in the family Burnetiidae, from the Late Permian of South Africa. Burnetia is known so far from a single holotype skull lacking the lower jaws described by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1923. Due to erosion and dorsoventral crushing, features of the skull are hard to interpret. Stutural lines are further distorted by the unusual shape of the skull roof, including many bosses and protuberances.
Simorhinella
Simorhinella is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsids from the Guadalupian, or Middle Permian, of South Africa. It is includes only a single species, Simorhinella baini, named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1915. Broom named Simorhinella on the basis of a single small fossil from the British Museum of Natural History collected in 1878 that includes the skull and jaws from the eye sockets forward of a young juvenile. The skull is unusual in that it has an extremely short and broad snout, unlike the longer and narrower snouts of most other early therocephalians. Because
Burnetiamorpha
Burnetiamorpha is a clade of biarmosuchian therapsids. Burnetiamorphs are the most derived biarmosuchians. The name Burnetiamorpha has been in use since South African paleontologist Robert Broom erected the group in 1923, but it has recently been put to use in phylogenetic classification as a clade including Burnetiidae and its closest relatives, including Lemurosaurus, Lophorhinus, and Lobalopex.
Galeops
Galeops is an extinct genus of anomodont therapsids from the Middle-Late Permian of South Africa. It was described by Robert Broom in 1912.Broom R. On some new fossil reptiles from the Permian and Triassic beds of South Africa Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1912: 859–876
Pelanomodon
Pelanomodon is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsids that lived in the Late Permian period. Fossil evidence of this genus is principally found in the Karoo Basin of South Africa, in the Dicynodon Assemblage Zone. Lack of fossil record after the Late Permian epoch suggests that Pelanomodon fell victim to the Permian-Triassic extinction event.
Lemurosaurus
Lemurosaurus is a genus of extinct biarmosuchian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. The generic epithet Lemursaurus is a mix of Latin, lemures "ghosts, spirits", and Greek, sauros, "lizard". Lemurosaurus is easily identifiable by its prominent eye crests, and large eyes. The name Lemurosaurus pricei was coined by paleontologist Robert Broom in 1949, based on a single small crushed skull, measured at approximately 86 millimeters in length, found on the Dorsfontein farm in Graaff-Reinet. To date, only two skulls of the Lemurosaurus have been discovered, so body size is unknown. Th
Tetracynodon
Tetracynodon is an extinct genus of therocephalian. Fossils of Tetracynodon have been found in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Two species are known: the type species T. tenuis from the Late Permian and the species T. darti from the Early Triassic. Both species were small-bodied and probably fed on insects and small vertebrates. Although Tetracynodon is more closely related to mammals than to reptiles, its braincase is very primitive and more resembles that of modern amphibians and reptiles than of mammals.
Hofmeyria
Distinguished from the Late Permian junior synonym of Akidnognathus "Hofmeyria".
Glanosuchus macrops
Glanosuchus is a genus of scylacosaurid therocephalian from the Late Permian of South Africa. The type species G. macrops was named by Robert Broom in 1904. Glanosuchus had a middle ear structure that was intermediate between that of early therapsids and mammals. Ridges in the nasal cavity of Glanosuchus suggest it had an at least partially endothermic metabolism similar to modern mammals.
Eriphostoma
Eriphostoma is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids known from the Middle Permian (middle Capitanian stage) of Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone, South Africa. It has one known species, Eriphostoma microdon, and was first named by Robert Broom in 1911. It is one the oldest known gorgonopsian and among the smallest and most basal members of the clade.
Dinanomodon
Dinanomodon is a genus of dicynodont that lived during the Late Permian (Lopingian) of the South Africa and China. Two species are recognised, D. gilli from the Cistecephalus and Daptocephalus Assemblage Zones of the Balfour Formation, Beaufort Group, in the Karoo Basin of South Africa, and D. guoi from the Gansu Province of China.
Dicynodontoides
Dicynodontoides is a genus of small to medium-bodied, herbivorous, emydopoid dicynodonts from the Late Permian. The name Dicynodontoides references its “dicynodont-like” appearance (dicynodont = two-dog-tooth) due to the caniniform tusks featured by most members of this infraorder. Kingoria, a junior synonym, has been used more widely in the literature than the more obscure Dicynodontoides, which is similar-sounding to another distantly related genus of dicynodont, Dicynodon. Three species are recognized: D. recurvidens from South Africa, and D. nowacki and D. kubwa from Tanzania.
Smilesaurus
Smilesaurus is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian known from South Africa. It lived during the Late Permian. It contains the single species S. ferox.