Cistecephalus
| Cistecephalus Temporal range: Wuchiapingian, | |
|---|---|
| Skull in front view, Natural History Museum, Bonn University | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | †Anomodontia |
| Clade: | †Dicynodontia |
| Family: | †Cistecephalidae |
| Genus: | †Cistecephalus Owen, 1876 |
| Type species | |
| †Cistecephalus microrhinus Owen, 1876 | |
Cistecephalus is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the Late Permian of southern Africa (South Africa and Zambia). It was a small, specialised, burrowing dicynodont, possibly with habits similar to a modern mole. The head was flattened and wedge-shaped, the body long, and the forelimbs very strong, with similarities in structure to the forelimb of modern burrowing mammals.
Cistecephalus appears to have been endemic to the Karoo Basin of South Africa. It is most common in the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone, in which it dominates the fauna, and is also found in the slightly older Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone.
It was one of the first genera of dicynodonts to be described, by Richard Owen, in 1876.
Cistecephalus could reach up to 60 centimetres (24 in) in length.