Aelurosaurus
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Aelurosaurus ("cat lizard", from Ancient Greek "cat" and "lizard") is a small, carnivorous, extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. It was discovered in the Karoo Basin of South Africa, and first named by Richard Owen in 1881. It was named so because it appeared to be an ancestor for cat-like marsupials, but not yet a mammal itself. It contains five species, A. felinus, A. whaitsi, A. polyodon, A. wilmanae, and A.? watermeyeri. A. felinus, the type species, is generally well described with established features, while the other four species are not due to
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- Image
- Aelurosaurus BW.jpg
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- Commons category
- Aelurosaurus
- taxon name
- Aelurosaurus
- start time
- 272000000-
- end time
- 251000000-
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Article
9 sectionsContents
- Discovery
- Species
- ''A. felinus''
- ''A. whaitsi''
- ''A. polyodon''
- ''A. wilmanae''
- ''A.? watermeyeri''
- Geology/Paleoenvironment
- References
Aelurosaurus ("cat lizard", from Ancient Greek "cat" and "lizard") is a small, carnivorous, extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. It was discovered in the Karoo Basin of South Africa, and first named by Richard Owen in 1881. It was named so because it appeared to be an ancestor for cat-like marsupials, but not yet a mammal itself. It contains five species, A. felinus, A. whaitsi, A. polyodon, A. wilmanae, and A.? watermeyeri. A. felinus, the type species, is generally well described with established features, while the other four species are not due to their poorly preserved holotypes. __TOC__
== Discovery == Aelurosaurus was discovered in 1881 in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. The skull holotype was missing the postorbital region, so Owen was left to describe the anterior portion. After examining the sutures and teeth, he assumed the first specimen to be from an older, adult Aelurosaurus, seeing that they were no longer in perfect condition.