cynodont
cynodont, (clade Cynodontia), any of a group of mammal-like reptiles of the order Therapsida that existed from the Late Permian to the Early Cretaceous Epoch (259.5 million to 100.5 million years ago). Fossil evidence suggests that mammals evolved from cynodont stock early in the Jurassic Period (201.3 million to 145.0 million years ago). Cynodont fossils have been found on all continents.
The cynodont skull has many features that anticipated those found in mammals. Notably, it has a secondary palate, as in a mammal, allowing it to simultaneously chew food and breathe, making for quicker digestion. (Most reptiles do not chew food but swallow it in large pieces, digesting it slowly.) Thus, cynodonts probably had a metabolic rate and large food requirement similar to mammals. They also had differentiated teeth, jaw bones, and jaw muscles suitable for chewing. Though the brain remained small, the braincase had an almost mammalian appearance, presaging the enlargement of the brain in mammalian descendants. Otherwise, the skeleton remained largely reptilian (the front and back limbs were appended on the sides, not underneath the body), signifying a sprawling posture and gait.
Fossil evidence suggests that cynodonts were widespread during the Permian and Triassic periods, originating in South Africa during the Late Permian Epoch (259.5 million to 251.9 million years ago) and spreading across Gondwana and Laurasia. The first known cynodont, Procynosuchus, was found in South Africa’s Karoo region in the 1930s and dates to about 254 million years ago; the genus was widespread, with other specimens discovered in Zambia and other parts of Africa and as far away as Germany and Russia. Since then, more than 50 genera have been described. The oldest known form, Charassognathus gracilis, which was discovered in South African rocks dating to the Permian’s Wuchiapingian Age (259.5 million to 254.1 million years ago), was described in 2007. Cynodonts survived until the middle of the Cretaceous Period, and the last known forms—members of the family Tritylodontidae (which were closely related to mammals and their closest extinct relatives)—died out about 125 million years ago.
