Choerosaurus

Choerosaurus Temporal range: Late Permian
3D-rendered skull
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Clade:	Therapsida
Clade:	†Therocephalia
Superfamily:	†Baurioidea
Genus:	†Choerosaurus Haughton, 1929
Type species
†Choerosaurus dejageri Haughton, 1929

Choerosaurus is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. The type species Choerosaurus dejageri was named by South African paleontologist Sidney H. Haughton from the Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone in 1929.

Hypothesized types of fighting

Life restoration

Choerosaurus is similar in appearance to Scaloposaurus. In both Choerosaurus and Scaloposaurus, the back of the skull (called the occiput) is high and the canine teeth are thick and shortened. Choerosaurus also has teeth that are ankylothecodont, meaning that they are fused to the bone of the jaw and would not have been replaced when it was alive.^[1]

Choerosaurus was traditionally classified in the Scalopodontia, a group of small therocephalians. Scalopodontians are now thought to be a polyphyletic grouping of mostly juvenile therocephalians, and most taxa are now classified as basal members of Baurioidea. The position of Choerosaurus within Baurioidea is uncertain, as it has never been incorporated in a phylogenetic analysis.^[2]

References

1. Ivakhnenko, M.F. (2011). "Permian and Triassic therocephals (Eutherapsida) of Eastern Europe". Paleontological Journal. 45 (9): 981–1144. doi:10.1134/S0031030111090012.
2. Abdala, F.; Rubidge, B. S.; Heever, J. A. van den (2008). "The oldest therocephalians (Therapsida, Eutheriodontia) and the early diversification of Therapsida". Palaeontology. 51 (4): 1011–1024. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00784.x.