Rhopalodon

Taxobox
name = "Rhopalodon"
fossil_range = Middle Permian


image_width = 250px
image_caption = Life restoration of "Moschops capensis"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
subphylum = Vertebrata
superclassis = Tetrapoda
classis = Synapsida
ordo = Therapsida
subordo = ?Dinocephalia
familia = unknown
genus = "Rhopalodon"
genus_authority = Fischer, 1881
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "R. wangenheimi" Fischer, 1881 (type)

"Rhopalodon" is a genus of synapsid from the Permian of Russia. It has been variously classified as a dinosaur, a dinocephalian, or another branch of Reptilia. "Rhopalodon" is notable for being among the first reptiles mentioned in "Nature". T.H. Huxley wrote of this reptile, among others, in the inaugural issue of the magazine, in November of 1869. He gave the age of this animal and of the contemporary "Deuterosaurus" as Triassic, but both are now known to have lived during the Middle Permian.

According to Tverdokhlebov "et al." (2005), "Rhopalodon" was a medium-sized terrestrial dinocephalian herbivore that was characteristic of the early Tatarian Urzhumian biostratigraphic zone (Bolshekinelskaya and Amanakskaya svitas).

References

* http://www.nature.com/nature/about/first/triassic.html
* http://dml.cmnh.org/1999Nov/msg00820.html
* Valentin P. Tverdokhlebov, Galina I. Tverdokhlebova, Alla V. Minikh, Mikhail V. Surkov, and Michael J. Benton, (2005) Upper Permian vertebrates and their sedimentological context in the South Urals, Russia, "Earth-Science Reviews" 69 27-77 55