Aelurognathus

Aelurognathus is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids from the Permian of South Africa.

Aelurognathus Temporal range: Wuchiapingian, 260.9–254 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Holotype skull of A. tigriceps
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Therapsida
Family:	†Gorgonopsidae
Subfamily:	†Rubidgeinae
Genus:	†Aelurognathus Haughton, 1924
Type species
†Scymnognathus tigriceps Broom and Haughton, 1913
Synonyms
Genus-level Gorgonorhinus Broom, 1937 Leontocephalus Broom, 1940 Prorubidgea Broom, 1940 Tigricephalus Broom, 1948 Species-level Scymnognathus serratidens Haughton, 1915 Gorgorhinus luckhoffi Broom, 1937 Leontocephalus cadlei Broom, 1940 Prorubidgea maccabei Broom, 1940 Sycosaurus brodiei Broom, 1941 Gorgorhinus minor Broom, 1948 Tigricephalus kingwilli Broom, 1948 Lycaenops alticeps Brink & Kitching, 1953 Prorubidgea brinki Manten, 1959 Aelurognathus broodei Gebauer, 2007

Discovery

A. tigriceps restoration

A. sp. skull at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin

The type species is Aelurognathus tigriceps, originally named Scymnognathus tigriceps by South African paleontologists Robert Broom and Sydney H. Haughton in 1913, and later assigned to the new genus Aelurognathus by Haughton in 1924.

Scymnognathus parringtoni von Huene, 1950, previously assigned to Aelurognathus, is now classified as a species of Sauroctonus.[1] Aelurognathus nyasaensis Haughton, 1926 is not referable to the genus.[2]

Palaeobiology

A broken tooth beside the skeleton of a dicynodont from the Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone has been attributed to Aelurognathus, indicating that it scavenged. The bones of the back of the skeleton are the most scattered, suggesting that the Aelurognathus individuals fed on the rear of the carcass, removing the hind limbs to reach the soft underside. The small incisor teeth of Aelurognathus indicate that it was not able to crush bone but more likely stripped flesh from its prey like the modern-day wild dog Lycaon pictus. Bite marks on the bones of the skeleton were unlikely to have been made by Aelurognathus and may be an indication that another predator killed the dicynodont.[3]

Classification

Below is a cladogram from the phylogenetic analysis of Gebauer (2007):[4]

Restoration of A. tigriceps with eggs

Gorgonopsia	Aloposaurus       Cyonosaurus       Aelurosaurus   Gorgonopsidae   Scylacognathus       Eoarctops     Gorgonops       Njalila       Lycaenops       Arctognathus       Inostrancevia   Rubidgeinae   Aelurognathus       Rubidgea       Sycosaurus     Clelandina

References

1. Gebauer E I, 2014. Re-assessment of the taxonomic position of the specimen GPIT/RE/7113 (Sauroctonus parringtoni comb. nov., Gorgonopsia). In: Kammerer C F, Angielczyk K D, Fröbisch J eds. Early Evolutionary History of the Synapsida. Dordrecht: Springer. 185−207.
2. Kammerer CF. (2016) Systematics of the Rubidgeinae (Therapsida: Gorgonopsia) PeerJ 4:e1608 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1608
3. Fordyce, N.; Smith, R.; Chinsamy, A. (2012). "Evidence of a therapsid scavenger in the Late Permian Karoo Basin, South Africa". South African Journal of Science. 108 (11/12). doi:10.4102/sajs.v108i11/12.1158.
4. Gebauer, E.V.I. (2007). Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ("Aelurognathus"? parringtoni) (PDF) (Thesis). Dissertation Universität Tübingen.