Sauroscaptor

Sauroscaptor is a genus of cistecephalid dicynodont from the upper Permian of India, containing one species, S. tharavati. It is remarkable for the extreme placement of its pineal foramen, which bulges out of the posterior margin of its skull.

Sauroscaptor
Temporal range: Lopingian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Therapsida
Clade: †Dicynodontia
Family: †Cistecephalidae
Genus: †Sauroscaptor
Kammerer, Bandyopadhyay, and Ray, 2016
Type species
†S. tharavati
Kammerer, Bandyopadhyay, and Ray, 2016

Etymology

Sauroscaptor means "lizard mole" or "lizard digger", and is derived from the Greek word σαῦρος, meaning "lizard", and the Greek word σκάπτω, meaning "digger", which is used as a suffix in the Indian mole genera Euroscaptor and Parascaptor. The type species, S. tharavati, honors Tharavat S. Kutty, discoverer of the Kundaram Formation fauna that includes Sauroscaptor.

History

The fossils of Sauroscaptor show various forms of compression, and were originally interpreted as pertaining to several different genera of dicynodont. However, the shared presence of several unique traits not affected by compression proved that the fossils all belonged to a single endemic species.[1]

Description

Sauroscaptor, like most cistecephalids, was a tuskless, small-bodied, fossorial dicyonodont.[1] The posterior margin of its pineal foramen bulges out from the back of the skull, resulting in a chimney-like nuchal crest continuous with the foramen. It has a significantly narrower skull table than is typical for cistecephalids. It is closely similar to an unnamed genus from Zambia, which shares the unusual pineal foramen position, but differ in the breadth of the skull table and morphology of the nuchal crest, as well as in the Zambian taxon being the only known tusked cisticephalid.

Classification
 
 
 
 

Diictodon

 
 
 

Eosimops

 
 
 

Prosictodon

 
 

Robertia

 
 
 
 
 
 

Emydops

 
 
 
 

Dicynodontoides

 
 

Kombuisia

 
 
 
 

Digalodon

 
 
 

Myosaurus

 
Cistecephalidae
 

Sauroscaptor

 
 
 

Cistecephalus

 
 
 

Cistecephaloides

 
 

Kawingasaurus

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bidentalia

 
 
Phylogenetic position of Sauroscaptor within Diictodontia[1][2]

Sauroscaptor is the basalmost known cistecephalid dicynodont.[1]

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References
  1. Kammerer, C. F.; Bandyopadhyay, Saswati; Ray, Sanghamitra (2016). "A new taxon of cisticephalid dicynodont from the upper Permian Kundaram Formation of India". Papers in Palaeontology. doi:10.1002/spp2.1055.
  2. Kammerer, Christian F.; Angielczyk, Kenneth D. (2009). "A proposed higher taxonomy of anomodont therapsids". Zootaxa. 2018: 1–24.
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