Arctops
| Arctops Temporal range: Late Permian
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| Artist's interpretation of A. willistoni | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Clade: | †Gorgonopsia |
| Family: | †Gorgonopsidae |
| Genus: | †Arctops Watson, 1914 |
| Type species | |
| Arctops willistoni Watson, 1914
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| Other species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Synonyms of A. willistoni: | |
Arctops ("bear face") is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids known from the Late Permian of South and Eastern Africa. It measured up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in length and its skull was 30 centimetres (12 in) long.[1] The type species is Arctops willistoni, named from a poorly prepared and incomplete skull. A second species was named A. watsoni based on a complete skull in 1953, followed by a third in 1970, A. kitchingi, from a smaller, juvenile skull.[2] Both were formally synonymized with A. willistoni by Christian Kammerer in 2017.[3] An additional species, A. umulunshi, was described in 2025 from the Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of Zambia, named after the indigenous Icibemba word for "hunter".[4]
References
[edit]- ^ "Arctops willistoni". Palaeocritti - a guide to prehistoric animals. Archived from the original on December 30, 2016.
- ^ Gebauer, E.V.I. (2007). Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni) (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen. pp. 1–316.
- ^ Kammerer, C.F. (2017). "Anatomy and relationships of the South African gorgonopsian Arctops (Therapsida, Theriodontia)". Papers in Palaeontology. 3 (4): 583–611. doi:10.1002/spp2.1094.
- ^ Mann, Arjan; Sidor, Christian A. (2025-08-07). "Arctops umulunshi, sp. nov. (Therapsida: Gorgonopsia) from the upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of Zambia, with new information on gorgonopsian postcranial anatomy". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 45 (sup1) 2444405. doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.2444405. ISSN 0272-4634.
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