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Triassic South Africa

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Cynognathus
Cynognathus is an extinct genus of large-bodied cynodontian therapsids that lived in the Middle Triassic. It is known from a single species, Cynognathus crateronotus. Cynognathus was a predator closely related to mammals and had a southern hemispheric distribution. Fossils have so far been recovered from South Africa, Argentina, Antarctica, and Namibia.
Thrinaxodon
Thrinaxodon is an extinct genus of cynodonts which lived in what are now South Africa and Antarctica during the Early Triassic. The genus contains a single species, T. liorhinus.
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).
Kannemeyeria
Kannemeyeria is a genus of dicynodont that lived during the Anisian age of Middle Triassic period in what is now Africa and South America. The generic name is given in honor of Daniel Rossouw Kannemeyer, the South African fossil collector who discovered the original specimen. It is one of the first representatives of the family, and hence one of the first large herbivores of the Triassic.
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.
Proterosuchus
Proterosuchus is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptiles that lived during the Early Triassic. It contains three valid species: the type species P. fergusi and the referred species P. alexanderi and P. goweri. All three species lived in what is now South Africa. The genus was named in 1903 by the South African paleontologist Robert Broom. The genus Chasmatosaurus is a junior synonym of Proterosuchus.
Procolophon
Procolophon (from , 'before' and , 'summit') is a genus of lizard-like procolophonid parareptiles that first appeared in the Early Triassic (Induan) of South Africa, Brazil, and Antarctica. It persisted through the Permian–Triassic extinction event, but went extinct in the beginning of the Early Middle Triassic.
Galesaurus
Galesaurus (from the Greek roots for 'weasel' and 'lizard') is an extinct genus of carnivorous cynodont therapsid that lived between the Induan and the Olenekian stages of the Early Triassic in what is now South Africa. It was incorrectly classified as a dinosaur by Sir Richard Owen in 1859.
Diademodon
Diademodon is an extinct genus of cynodonts. It was about long.
Trirachodon
Trirachodon (Greek: "three ridge tooth") is an extinct genus of cynodonts. Fossils have been found in the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in South Africa and the Omingonde Formation of Namibia, dating back to the Early and Middle Triassic.
Batrachosuchus
Batrachosuchus is a genus of temnospondyl that existed from the Early to Middle Triassic of southern Africa (Ntawere Formation of Zambia and Burgersdorp Formation of South Africa) and the Blina Shale of Australia. The holotype is a skull registered at the Natural History Museum UK (NHMUK PV R 3589).
Platycraniellus
Platycraniellus is an extinct genus of carnivorous cynodonts from the Early Triassic. It is known from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of the Normandien Formation in South Africa. P. elegans is the only species in this genus based on the holotype specimen from the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria, South Africa (formerly known as the Transvaal Museum). Due to limited fossil records for study, Platycraniellus has only been briefly described a handful of times.
Progalesaurus
Progalesaurus is an extinct genus of galesaurid cynodont from the early Triassic. Progalesaurus is known from a single fossil of the species Progalesaurus lootsbergensis, found in the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of the Balfour Formation. Close relatives of Progalesaurus, other galesaurids, include Galesaurus and Cynosaurus. Galesaurids appeared just before the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and disappeared from the fossil record in the Middle-Triassic.
Laidleria
Laidleria is an extinct genus of temnospondyl that likely lived between the Early to Middle Triassic, though its exact stratigraphic range is less certain. Laidleria has been found in the Karoo Basin in South Africa, in Cynognathus Zone A or B. The genus is represented by only one species, L. gracilis, though the family Laidleriidae does include other genera, such as Uruyiella, sister taxon to Laidleria, which was discovered and classified in 2007.
Lumkuia
Lumkuia is an extinct genus of cynodont, fossils of which have been found in the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in the South African Karoo Basin that date back to the early Middle Triassic. It contains a single species, Lumkuia fuzzi, which was named in 2001 on the basis of the holotype specimen BP/1/2669, which can now be found at the Bernard Price Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. The genus has been placed in its own family, Lumkuiidae. Lumkuia is not as common as other cynodonts from the same locality such as Diademodon and Trirachodon.
Prolacerta
Prolacerta is a genus of archosauromorph from the lower Triassic of South Africa and Antarctica. The only known species is Prolacerta broomi. Prolacerta was a small and slender reptile, with a rather long neck, low skull, and serrated teeth. It would have resembled a modern monitor lizard at a quick glance, though this is an example of convergent evolution as opposed to close affinities.
Mesosuchus
Mesosuchus ("middle crocodile") is an extinct genus of basal rhynchosaur from early Middle Triassic (early Anisian stage) deposits of Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is known from the holotype SAM 5882, a partial skeleton, and from the paratypes SAM 6046, SAM 6536, SAM 7416 and SAM 7701 from the Aliwal North Euparkeria site. Mesosuchus is quite small, spanning around 30 cm in length. Mesosuchus was discovered and named by D. M. S. Watson in 1912.
Dicellopyge
Dicellopyge is an extinct genus of freshwater ray-finned fish that lived during the early Anisian age of the Middle Triassic epoch in what is now South Africa. It was originally named "Dicellopygae" by James Brough but the name was later corrected to Dicellopyge by Peter Hutchinson.
Microgomphodon
Microgomphodon is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsid from the Middle Triassic of South Africa and Namibia. Only one species of Microgomphodon, M. oligocynus, is currently recognized. With fossils present in the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone (CAZ) of the Burgersdorp Formation in South Africa and Omingonde Formation of Namibia and ranging in age from late Olenekian to Anisian, it is one of the most geographically and temporally widespread therocephalian species. Moreover, its occurrence in the upper Omigonde Formation of Namibia makes Microgomphodon the latest-surviving therocephalian. M
Bolotridon
Bolotridon is an extinct genus of epicynodontian cynodont. It was renamed from its original genus designation of Tribolodon (Harry Govier Seeley, 1895), which was already occupied by a genus of cyprinid fish named in 1883 by Sauvage. The name Bolotridon was coined by Brian W. Coad in a 1977 publication as an anagram of Tribolodon.
Elliot Formation
lithostratigraphic layer in South Africa
Myosaurus
Myosaurus (Greek for “mice-like lizard,” with mys- meaning mouse, and -sauros meaning lizard) is a genus of dicynodont synapsids. Myosaurus was a small, herbivorous synapsid that existed around the early Triassic period. All of the fossils found of this species were found in Antarctica and South Africa. Compared to other fossils found from species that existed during this time, the Myosaurus is not common in the fossil record. This is due to a shortage of discovered fossils that possess characteristics unique to the Myosaurus. Notably, under 130 fossil fragments have been found that have been
Pentasaurus
Pentasaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodont of the family Stahleckeriidae, closely related to the well known Placerias. It was found in the Lower Elliot Formation of South Africa, dated to the Norian of the Late Triassic period. The genus contains the type and only species, Pentasaurus goggai. Pentasaurus is named after the ichnogenus Pentasauropus, fossil footprints that were originally described from the lower Elliot Formation in 1970 decades before the body fossils of Pentasaurus itself were recognised. Pentasauropus footprints were likely made by dicynodonts, and in South Africa Pentasau
Elliotherium
Elliotherium is an extinct genus of cynodonts which existed in South Africa during the upper Triassic period. The type species is Elliotherium kersteni, named after the Elliot Formation in which the fossils were found.