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.

== Description == When broadly looking at the skull, there are well-developed "cheeks", bosses and pits that resemble Pareiasaurians'. However, the small temporal fossa distinguishes it from the Cotylosaur. The overall shape resembles a triangle. In the nasals, there is a bulging expansion of bone. Unlike proburnetia's median nasal bridge being long, narrow and raised, Burnetia is splindle-shaped. The median nasal boss is spindle-shaped. The snout is wide and blunt. The large preorbital pits on the lachrymal are significant. Over the orbit there are notable ridges on the prefrontal and frontal. The supra-orbital ridges make the orbits face distally and posteriorly. The suborbital eminence is subdivided into distinguished portions. The small pineal foramen sits dorsally on a boss.