Captorhinidae
Skeletons of two individuals of Captorhinus aguti from the Early Permian of North America. Captorhinus reached a length of approximately 40 cm.
- Europe
- North America
- Africa
- China
- India
The Captorhinidae are a group of extinct, very original reptiles that lived in Europe, Africa, China, India and North America in the Permian. Typical features of this clumsy, lizard-like animals were the honeycomb-like bone sculpture on the surface of the skull bones and the thickened neural arches of the vertebrae. Some species had relatively more rows of pointed teeth on the jaw edges, suggesting a vegetarian or hard-shelled diet of this species. The types with a single row of teeth on the jaw edges probably ate insects.
Most Captorhiniden were small animals in Moradisaurus but whose fossil remains have been found in Niger, the skull alone had a length of 42 centimeters.
The geologically oldest representatives of Captorhiniden already lived at the end of the Carboniferous. The most recent representatives, including Moradisaurus, dying out at the end of the Permian.
- 3.1 Notes and references
System
Outer systematics
The Captorhiniden be assigned to the Anapsiden in classical systematics because of their lack of cranial window.
In the modern, cladistic classification they belong to as " primitive " skull windowless representatives of the same clade, which also includes the Diapsiden, so all modern reptiles and birds. This clade is referred to as Eureptilia.
The following cladogram is contrary to the position of Captorhinidae within the basal sauropsids ( Reptilia ), Eureptilia by Laurin and Reisz (1995) and Benton ( 2005), Parareptilia by Tsuji and Müller ( 2009).
Synapsida (including mammals)
† Mesosauridae
† Millerettidae
† Lanthanosuchoidea
† Nyctiphruretus
† Procolophonoidea
† Pareiasauria
† " Nycteroleteridae "
† Captorhinidae
† Paleothyris
Diapsida ( including today's reptiles and groups of birds )
Inside systematics
The genera of Captorhinidae be distinguished inter alia by the number and arrangement of the rows of teeth. The following species list is based primarily on the work of Reisz et al. (2011) and Sumida et al. (2010):
- Family Captorhinidae Captorhinoides?
- Eocaptorhinus?
- Acrodenta
- Baeotherates
- Captorhinus
- Concordia
- Protocaptorhinus
- Reiszorhinus
- Rhiodenticulatus
- Romeria
- Saurorictus
- Thuringothyris
- Subfamily Moradisaurinae Gecatogomphius
- Kahneria
- Captorhinikos
- Labidosaurus
- Labidosaurikos
- Moradisaurus
- Rothianiscus
- Gansurhinus
- Puercosaurus
- Riabininus