Epicynodontia
Clade of cynodonts
Epicynodontia is a clade of cynodont therapsids that includes most cynodonts, such as galesaurids, thrinaxodontids, and Eucynodontia (including mammals). It was erected as a stem-based taxon by Hopson and Kitching (2001) and defined as the most inclusive clade containing Mammalia and excluding Procynosuchus, a Late Permian genus that is one of the most basal cynodonts.
Below is a cladogram from Pusch et al. (2023) showing one hypothesis of cynodont relationships:
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Epicynodontia”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Sperm whale pod.jpg by Gabriel Barathieu, CC BY-SA 2.0
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