Lupeosaurus

Lupeosaurus Temporal range: Early Permian, 295 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
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Restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Clade:	Eupelycosauria
Family:	†Edaphosauridae
Genus:	†Lupeosaurus Romer, 1937
Species:	† L. kayi
Binomial name
Lupeosaurus kayi Romer, 1937

Lupeosaurus is an extinct genus of pelycosaurian synapsid, assigned to the family Edaphosauridae.

Classification

It is known from only two described specimens, both consisting of postcranial bits and pieces. The most significant item is the absence of cross-bars on the neural spines. This left considerable doubt about the affinities of Lupeosaurus. However, the vertebrae and neural spines are otherwise entirely edaphosaurid. Unfortunately, these, and some pieces of the limb girdles, are about all that exist.

Lupeosaurus was 60 cm long and perhaps as much as 20 kg. The ribs suggest, but only suggest, that it was markedly skinnier than Edaphosaurus and thus not a highly adapted herbivore. On the other hand, it pushes the upper size limit for insectivores in an age when colonial insects had not yet evolved. Everything known about the limbs suggests that they were massive for an edaphosaur. The robust limbs, combined with presumed thinness, point toward a run-of-the-mill carnivore of some kind. Amphicoelous vertebral centra are a little unusual in a (relatively) powerful carnivore, but this was the primitive and usual condition for early synapsids of all types.

See also

• List of synapsids