Smilesaurus

Smilesaurus Temporal range: Late Permian 259–254 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Order:	Therapsida
Family:	†Gorgonopsidae
Subfamily:	†Rubidgeinae
Genus:	†Smilesaurus
Type species
†Smilesaurus ferox Broom, 1948
Synonyms
†Pardocephalus wallacei Broom, 1948 †Smilesaurus maccabei Broom, 1948 †Aelurognathus ferox Gebauer, 2008

Restoration

Smilesaurus is an extinct genus of rubidgeine gorgonopsian known from Africa. It lived during the Late Permian. It contains the single species S. ferox.^[1]

Description

Smilesaurus was a large gorgonopsian, with a skull length of up to 31 centimeters. It can be distinguished by other rubidgeines by its lack of cranial pachyostosis and rugosoties, and by its relatively small orbits.^[1]

Classification

Smilesaurus is the basalmost known member of Rubidgeinae.

Below is a cladogram by Kammerer et al. in 2016.^[1]

Rubidgeinae	Smilesaurus ferox Aelurognathus tigriceps Ruhuhucerberus haughtoni Sycosaurus laticeps Sycosaurus nowaki Rubidgeini Leontosaurus vanderhosti Dinogorgon rubidgei Rubidgea atrox Clelandina rubidgei

See also

• List of synapsids

References

1. Kammerer, Christian F. (2016). "Systematics of the Rubidgeinae (Therapsida: Gorgonopsia)". PeerJ. 4: e1608. doi:10.7717/peerj.1608.

• The main groups of non-mammalian synapsids at Mikko's Phylogeny Archive