Bauria

fossil therapsid genus

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Related Topics:: fossil; therapsid; Early Triassic Epoch

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Bauria, extinct genus of mammal-like reptiles found as fossils in South African rocks of the Early Triassic Period (about 251 million to 246 million years ago). The skull of Bauria had several mammal-like features. A secondary palate separates air and food passages. The teeth show specialization and are differentiated into a set of incisor-like, caninelike, and molarlike cheek teeth. A single bone, the dentary, dwarfs the other lower jawbones, a trend toward the mammalian condition of only one bone, the dentary. Bauria and its relatives did not survive the Early Triassic.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Richard Pallardy.