Neosaurus Temporal range:
Late Carboniferous-
Early Permian,
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Holotype | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Family: | † Sphenacodontidae |
Genus: | †
Neosaurus Nopsca, 1923 |
Type species | |
†Neosaurus cynodus (Gervais, 1869)
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Synonyms | |
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Neosaurus is an extinct genus of pelycosaur-grade synapsids from the Late Carboniferous- Early Permian of the Jura region of France. It is known only from a partial maxilla or upper jaw bone and an associated impression of the bone. [1] The teardrop shape of the teeth in the jaw indicate that Neosaurus belongs to the family Sphenacodontidae, which includes the better-known Dimetrodon from the Southwestern United States. The maxilla was first attributed to an early diapsid reptile in 1857, [2] [3] and later a crocodylomorph in 1869, [4] before finally being identified as a sphenacodont synapsid in 1899, [5] a classification that still holds today. [6]
A species of the hadrosaur dinosaur Hypsibema, H. missouriensis, is also called Neosaurus, although because the name was already in use, that species was renamed Parrosaurus before being reassigned to Hypsibema. [7]