New whaitsioids (Therapsida: Therocephalia) from the Teekloof Formation of South Africa and therocephalian diversity during the end-Guadalupian extinction.

ABSTRACT: Two new species of therocephalian therapsids are described from the upper Permian Teekloof Formation of the Karoo Basin, South Africa. They include two specimens of a whaitsiid, Microwhaitsia mendrezi gen. et sp. nov., and a single, small whaitsioid Ophidostoma tatarinovi gen. et sp. nov., which preserves a combination of primitive and apomorphic features. A phylogenetic analysis of 56 therapsid taxa and 136 craniodental and postcranial characters places the new taxa within the monophyletic sister group of baurioids-Whaitsioidea-with Microwhaitsia as a basal whaitsiid and Ophidostoma as an aberrant whaitsioid just outside the hofmeyriid+whaitsiid subclade. The new records support that whaitsioids were diverse during the early-late Permian (Wuchiapingian) and tha

SUBMITTER: Huttenlocker AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5632541 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature