Ophiacodontidae

Ophiacodontidae
Ophiacodontidae
Temporal range: Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian
Archaeothyris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Tetrapoda
Class: Synapsida
Order: Pelycosauria
Family: Ophiacodontidae
Nopsca, 1923
Genera

Ophiacodontidae (or Ophiacodonts) were pelycosaur synapsids. They appeared in the late Carboniferous period. Archaeothyris, and Clepsydrops were among the earliest Ophiacodontids. Archaeothyris and its relatives were the members of this family. Some ophiacodonts were semi-aquatic, and few were fully aquatic, but some were fully terrestrial like Archaeothyris. They resembled lizards in shape. They have strange, elongated skulls, they also have massive shoulder girdles, probably to provide muscle attachment to support the weight of the huge head. This family is the most primitive among synapsids and may have been ancestral to all pelycosaurs - which includes therapsids and their descendants, the mammals. By the Middle Permian, the ophiacodontids were becoming rare, and they were eventually replaced by anomodonts, the diapsid reptiles, and the evolving theriodonts, and later in the Middle Permian, the Ophiacodontids became extinct.

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