Procolophonia

Procolophonia is an extinct clade of basal reptiles, traditionally classified as "parareptiles", that lived from the Middle Permian till the end of the Triassic period. The group includes the largest known parareptiles, the up to oxen-sized herbivorous pareiasaurs, as well as the longest lived "parareptiles", the small lizard-like procolophonoids. Although traditionally grouped in Parareptilia, this classification scheme has been questioned.

==Classification== There are two main groups of Procolophonia, the small, lizard-like Procolophonoidea, and the Pareiasauroidea, which include the large, armoured Pareiasauridae. According to the traditional classification of Carroll 1988 as well as phylogenetic analyses of 2012, smaller groups like Rhipaeosauridae (now a synonym of Nycteroleteridae) and Sclerosauridae are classified with the pareiasaurs and with the procolophonids, respectively. The Nyctiphruretidae was thought to represent the sister taxon of Procolophonia by many studies, however recently discovered material places it within the group, as the sister taxon of Procolophonoidea.