Kingdom Animalia Family †Edaphosauridae Rank Genus | Phylum Chordata Species †L. kayi | |
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Similar Ianthasaurus, Glaucosaurus, Ctenospondylus, Edaphosauridae, Stereorhachis | ||
Lupeosaurus is an extinct genus of pelycosaurian synapsid, assigned to the family Edaphosauridae.
Classification
It is known from only two described specimens, both consisting of postcranial bits and pieces. The most significant item is the absence of cross-bars on the neural spines. This left considerable doubt about the affinities of Lupeosaurus. However, the vertebrae and neural spines are otherwise entirely edaphosaurid. Unfortunately, these, and some pieces of the limb girdles, are about all that exist.
Lupeosaurus was 2.5 – 3.3 m long and weighed perhaps as much as 166 kg. The ribs suggest, but only suggest, that it was markedly skinnier than Edaphosaurus and thus not a highly adapted herbivore. Everything known about the limbs suggests that they were massive for an edaphosaur. The robust limbs, combined with presumed thinness, point toward a run-of-the-mill carnivore of some kind. Amphicoelous vertebral centra are a little unusual in a (relatively) powerful carnivore, but this was the primitive and usual condition for early synapsids of all types.