Early Evolutionary History of the Synapsida

Part I. "Pelycosaur"-grade Synapsids

1. Introduction

Robert R. Reisz

2. New Information on the Basal Pelycosaurian-grade Synapsid Oedaleops

Stuart S. Sumida, Valerie Pelletier, and David S Berman

3. Was Ophiacodon (Synapsida: Eupelycosauria) a Swimmer? A Test Using Vertebral Dimensions

Ryan N. Felice and Kenneth D. Angielczyk

4. Postcranial Description and Reconstruction of the Varanodontine Varanopid Aerosaurus wellesi (Synapsida: Eupelycosauria)

Valerie Pelletier

5. First European Record of a Varanodontine (Synapsida: Varanopidae): Member of a Unique Early Permian Upland Paleoecosystem, Tambach Basin, Central Germany

David S Berman, Amy C. Henrici, Stuart S. Sumida, Thomas Martens, and Valerie Pelletier

Part II. Anomodontia

6. Introduction

Jörg Fröbisch

7. Permian and Triassic Dicynodont (Therapsida: Anomodontia) Faunas of the Luangwa Basin, Zambia: Update and Implications for Dicynodont Biogeography and Biostratigraphy

Kenneth D. Angielczyk, Jean-Sébastien Steyer, Christian A. Sidor, Roger M. H. Smith, Robin L. Whatley, and Stephen Tolan

8. Anatomical Plasticity in the Snout of Lystrosaurus

Sandra C. Jasinoski, Michael A. Cluver, Anusuya Chinsamy, and B. Daya Reddy

9. Pathological Features in Upper Permian and Middle Triassic Dicynodonts (Synapsida, Therapsida)

Cristina Silveira Vega and Michael W. Maisch

Part III. Theriodontia

10. Introduction

Christian F. Kammerer

11. A Redescription of Eriphostoma microdon Broom, 1911 (Therapsida, Gorgonopsia) from the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone of South Africa and a Review of Middle Permian Gorgonopsians

Christian F. Kammerer

12. Re-assessment of the Taxonomic Position of the Specimen GPIT/RE/7113 (Sauroctonus parringtoni comb. nov., Gorgonopsia)

Eva V. I. Gebauer

13. New Material of Microgomphodon oligocynus (Eutherapsida, Therocephalia) and the Taxonomy of Southern African Bauriidae

Fernando Abdala, Tea Jashashvili, Bruce S. Rubidge, and Juri van den Heever

14. The Traversodontid Cynodont Mandagomphodon hirschsoni from the Middle Triassic of the Ruhuhu Valley, Tanzania

James A. Hopson

15. Phylogeny and Taxonomy of the Traversodontidae

Jun Liu and Fernando Abdala

Part IV. Therapsid Diversity Patterns and the End-Permian Extinction

16. Introduction

Kenneth D. Angielczyk

17. Vertebrate Paleontology of Nooitgedacht 68: A Lystrosaurus maccaigi-rich Permo-Triassic Boundary Locality in South Africa

Jennifer Botha-Brink, Adam K. Huttenlocker, and Sean P. Modesto

18. Fröbisch, J. Synapsid Diversity and the Rock Record in the Permian-Triassic Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup), South Africa

Jörg Fröbisch

Subject Index

Taxonomic Index

Christian F. Kammerer received his B.A. in Biological Sciences and his M.S. and PhD. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago. He has studied as a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History, New York and the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. His research focuses on the systematics of Permo-Triassic synapsids and the evolutionary processes underlying the origin of mammals.

Kenneth D. Angielczyk received a B.S. in Biology and Geology from the University of Michigan and a PhD. In Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2007, After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Academy of Sciences and the University of Bristol, he was appointed as the Assistant Curator of Paleomammalogy at the Field Museum of Natural History. His research focuses on the taxonomy, phylogenetics, paleobiology, and paleoecology of dicynodont therapsids, and how terrestrial tetrapod communities were affected by the end-Permian mass extinction.

Jörg Fröbisch is Professor for Paleobiology and Evolution at the Humboldt Universität and Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. He received a Diplom (M.Sc. equivalent) in Geology/Paleontology from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and a PhD. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the patterns of diversification, phylogeny, and paleobiology of synapsids, as well as trends in the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems and the impact of mass extinction events on terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems.