Angelosaurus ("angel lizard") is an extinct genus of caseid synapsid that lived in Texas during the Early Permian period.
Description[]
The type species of Angelosaurus, A. dolani, is known from a partial skull and some fragmentary postcrania, so much of our information comes from the better preserved A. romeri. A. romeri's preserved skull shows that it had a short cultriform process apparently ending with a distinctive tooth whorl, unlike other caseids.[1] The dentary of A. romeri is also longer and straighter than in other caseids.[1] Angelosaurus apparently possessed an additional sacral vertebra, not found in any other caseid, and the scapulocoracoid is longer and more recurved.[1]
Taxonomy[]
Three species of Angelosaurus have been named: A. dolani, A. greeni, and A. romeri. In both 2015 and 2016, related datasets found the genus to be polyphyletic, with A. greeni being closer to Edaphosaurus, and A. romeri forming the outgroup to a clade consisting of A. dolani and Ennatosaurus.[2][3]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Olson EC 1968 "The family Caseidae".
- ↑ Romano, M. and Nicosia, U. 2015a. Cladistic analysis of Caseidae (Caseasauria, Synapsida): using the gap-weighting method to include taxa based on incomplete specimens. Palaeontology, 58, 1109–1130
- ↑ Brocklehurst, N., Romano, M. and Fröbisch, J. (2016), Principal component analysis as an alternative treatment for morphometric characters: phylogeny of caseids as a case study. Palaeontology, 59: 877-886. https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12264