Kingdom Animalia Order Therapsida Family †Tapinocephalidae | Phylum Chordata Suborder †Dinocephalia | |
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Genus †Criocephalosaurus
Kammerer & Sidor, 2002 | ||
Criocephalosaurus is an extinct genus of tapinocephalian therapsid which existed in Southern Africa. It was originally named Criocephalus, but the name was preoccupied by a beetle genus. There are two named species, C. vanderbyli and C. gunyankaensis: the range of the latter may have been farther north than that of C. vanderbyli. Boonstra (1963) considers this taxon the most specialized of the moschopines.
Description
These animals were 2.5 to 3 metres (8 ft 2 in to 9 ft 10 in) in length and 700 to 1,000 kilograms (1,543 to 2,205 lb) in mass. Criocephalosaurus is known from at least half a dozen skulls are now known. The intertemporal region is very broad and the cranial roof greatly thickened by pachyostosis.
References
Criocephalosaurus Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA