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Therapsida
Sign in to saveTherapsida is a clade comprising a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals and their ancestors and close relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more underneath the body, resulting in a more "standing" quadrupedal posture, as opposed to the lower sprawling posture of many reptiles and amphibians.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Alopecognathus angusticeps DB.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- taxon common name
- Therapsiden
- taxon name
- Therapsida
- Commons category
- Therapsida
- start time
- 275000000-
Sources (2)
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~15 min read
Article
18 sectionsContents
- Characteristics
- Jaw and teeth
- Posture
- Physiology
- Integument
- Evolutionary history
- Classification
- Biarmosuchia
- Dinocephalia
- Anomodontia
- Gorgonopsia
- Therocephalia
- Cynodontia
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Therapsida is a clade comprising a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals and their ancestors and close relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more underneath the body, resulting in a more "standing" quadrupedal posture, as opposed to the lower sprawling posture of many reptiles and amphibians.
Therapsids evolved from earlier synapsids commonly called "pelycosaurs", specifically within the Sphenacodontia, more than 279.5 million years ago. They replaced the pelycosaurs as the dominant large land animals in the Guadalupian through to the Early Triassic. In the aftermath of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, therapsids declined in relative importance to the rapidly diversifying archosaurian sauropsids (pseudosuchians, dinosaurs and pterosaurs, etc.) during the Middle Triassic.