Named By: | B. S. Rubidge in 1994 |
Time Period: | Middle Permian, 265 Ma |
Location: | South Africa |
Size: | Skull 26 centimetres long. Body estimated about 1.8 meters long |
Diet: | Carnivore |
Fossil(s): | Skull and mandible, but crushed on the right side |
Classification: | | Chordata | Therapsida | Dinocephalia | Anteosauridae | Syodontinae | |
Australosyodon is an extinct genus of dinocephalian therapsid from the middle Permian of South Africa. The first fossil was discovered in the 1980s near the village of Prince Albert Road in the Karoo region of South Africa.
The genus is closely related to the genus Syodon, found in the Russian Ischejewo fauna, and is thus regarded as the earliest example of an anteosaurid Dinocephalia outside of Russia. Australosyodon fossils have been recovered from the Eodicynodon Assemblage Zone, the lowest bank of the South African Beaufort Group, indicating the presence of primitive early therapsids in the southern hemisphere. The genus was first described by Bruce S. Rubidge in 1994.