Cynodraco

Cynodraco,^[a] also spelled Cynodracon or Cynodrakon,^[1] is a dubious genus of non-mammalian therapsid, probably gorgonopsian, from the late Permian of South Africa. Two species of the genus have been named, Cynodraco serridens and Cynodraco major.^[2] Its fossils have been found in the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone,^[3] which dates to the Wuchiapingian age of the late Permian.^[4] Cynodraco was one of the first gorgonopsian taxa named, alongside Gorgonops and Lycosaurus, which were named in the same publication.^[5]

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Type species ...

Cynodraco Temporal range: Wuchiapingian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Clade:	Therapsida
Clade:	†Gorgonopsia
Genus:	†Cynodraco Owen, 1876
Type species
Cynodraco serridens Owen, 1876
Referred species
†Cynodraco major Owen, 1876

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Fossils of Cynodraco were discovered in the Karoo of South Africa by Andrew Geddes Bain,^[6] who gave them to the British Museum in 1853.^[7] Richard Owen described Cynodraco on the basis of these fossils in 1876 and classified them in two species: Cynodraco serridens and Cynodraco major.^[2] In one of his two 1876 papers on the genus, he spells it Cynodraco;^[8] in the other, he spells it Cynodracon.^[2] Owen found the mammalian characters of the humerus of Cynodraco and the similarity of its teeth to those of the saber-toothed cat Machairodus to be remarkable.^[9] Seeley later noted that the humerus could not be proved to belong to the same species as the skull fragments on which the genus is based.^[10] In 1890, Richard Lydekker regarded C. serridens as the type species of the genus and synonymized C. major with it.^[11] Denise Sigogneau-Russell regarded Cynodraco as a possible gorgonopsian of uncertain affinity,^[12][3] an identification which remains accepted.^[1]