Akidnognathidae

Akidnognathidae is an extinct family of therocephalian therapsids from the Late Permian and Early Triassic of South Africa, Russia and China. The family includes many large-bodied therocephalians that were probably carnivorous, including Moschorhinus and Olivierosuchus. One akidnognathid, Euchambersia, may even have been venomous. Akidnognathids have robust skulls with a pair of large caniniform teeth in their upper jaws. The family is morphologically intermediate between the more basal therocephalian group Scylacosauridae and the more derived group Baurioidea.

==Research history== The first known fossils of akidnognathids consists of two skulls which were discovered during a series of excavations carried out from 1899 until 1914 by Vladimir Amalitsky and his companion in the Northern Dvina, in present-day European Russia. In an article published posthumously in 1922, Amalitsky established a new taxon of therocephalians under the name Anna petri, in honor of his companion. In his description he judges it to be similar to Scylacosaurus. In 1963, Oskar Kuhn proposed changing the name of the genus to Annatherapsidus, seeing that Anna was an already preoccupied taxon. Currently, Annatherapsidus is the only akidnognathid known from Russian territory.