Eupelycosauria
Eupelycosauria is a large clade of animals characterized by the unique shape of their skull, encompassing all mammals and their closest extinct relatives. They first appeared 308million years ago during the Early Pennsylvanian epoch, with the fossils of Echinerpeton and perhaps an even earlier genus, Protoclepsydrops, representing just one of the many stages in the evolution of mammals, in contrast to their earlier amniote ancestors.
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- Taxonomy
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Eupelycosauria is a large clade of animals characterized by the unique shape of their skull, encompassing all mammals and their closest extinct relatives. They first appeared 308million years ago during the Early Pennsylvanian epoch, with the fossils of Echinerpeton and perhaps an even earlier genus, Protoclepsydrops, representing just one of the many stages in the evolution of mammals, in contrast to their earlier amniote ancestors.
== Taxonomy == Eupelycosaurs are synapsids, animals whose skull has a single opening behind the eye. They are distinguished from the Caseasaurian synapsids by having a long, narrow supratemporal bone (instead of one that is as wide as it is long) and a frontal bone with a wider connection to the upper margin of the orbit. The only living descendants of basal eupelycosaurs are the mammals.