Therapsida

Uncommon card · No. 75036

Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids. It includes mammals, as well as their ancestors and close relatives. Many defining traits of modern mammals had their origins within early therapsids. Changes in skeletal structure brought their limbs underneath their body mass which resulted in a more "standing" quadrupedal posture, as opposed to the lower sprawling posture of many reptiles and amphibians. The teeth of therapsids are differentiated into incisors, canines, and postcanines (the latter becoming differentiated into premolars and molars in mammals). Their necks also gained more flexibility allowing therapsids greater range of motion in moving their heads. Therapsids split from their closest relatives within the "pelycosaurs", the carnivorous Sphenacodontidae (including the famous Dimetrodon) during the Late Carboniferous or earliest Permian. Their early evolutionary history during the Cisuralian (Early Permian), is obscure, and they lack confirmed fossil records during...

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