Rhopalodon

Rhopalodon Temporal range: Middle Permian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Superclass:	Tetrapoda
Class:	Synapsida
Order:	Therapsida
Suborder:	?Dinocephalia
Family:	Rhopalodontidae
Genus:	Rhopalodon Fischer, 1881
Species
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 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).

See also

• List of synapsids

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