Moschognathus
Extinct genus of therapsids that lived in the Guadalupian epoch
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Moschognathus is an extinct genus of dinocephalian therapsid in the family Tapinocephalidae. The genus includes only the type species M. whaitsi, named by palaeontologist Robert Broom in 1914. It was a short-snouted tapinocephalid, closely related to and resembling the well-known genus Moschops, but its skull is less thickened overall has a relatively longer and shallower snout by comparison. Indeed, Moschognathus has typically been regarded as a junior synonym of Moschops (e.g. by King, 1988 and Atayman et al., 2009)[2][3] since 1969 after Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra sunk Moschognathus into Moschops, albeit retained as its own doubtfully valid species.[4] However, researchers in the 21st century have expressed doubt over this synonymy and suggested that Moschognathus is a distinct taxon after all, including first by Christian Kammerer in a 2009 Ph.D. thesis and formally in 2015 by Alessandra D. S. Boos and colleagues (including Kammerer) in 2015.[1] Moschognathus has since began to re-enter scientific literature of dinocephalians as a valid name and treated distinct from Moschops.[5]
| Moschognathus Temporal range: Middle Permian, Capitanian ~ | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | †Dinocephalia |
| Family: | †Tapinocephalidae |
| Genus: | †Moschognathus Broom, 1914 |
| Species: | †M. whaitsi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Moschognathus whaitsi Broom, 1914 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The holotype specimen, AMNH FARB 5602, is a partial skeleton including the upper jaw tips, mandibles, vertebrae (including a complete cervical series from the neck), ribs, and the right pelvis and femur.[1] In addition to the holotype specimen, a complete skull and mandibles have tentatively been assigned to Moschognathus. This specimen, AM 4950, was initially identified as a juvenile Anteosaurus prior to preparation,[6] but was subsequently identified as a subadult Moschops by Julien Benoit and colleagues in 2016 and again in 2017.[7][8] This skull was argued to belong instead to Moschognathus in a Ph.D. thesis by Saniye Neumann, and this proposal was formally adopted in subsequent literature.[5][9]
Palaeobiology
Tooth replacement in M. whaitsi took place in an alternating pattern, as evidenced by two different generations of teeth found in the maxillary and mandibular tooth rows of a fossil of M. whaitsi.[10]
A palaeopathological juvenile specimen of M. whaitsi has been found suggesting that juveniles of the species engaged in play fighting.[11]
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