Diadectes

Diadectes
Temporal range: Artinskian-Kungurian
Mounted skeleton of D. sideropelicus, American Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Diadectomorpha
Family: Diadectidae
Genus: Diadectes
Cope, 1878
Type species
Diadectes sideropelicus
Cope, 1878
Species
  • D. absitus Berman et al., 1998
  • D. carinatus (Case & Williston, 1912)
  • D. dreigleichenensis Ponstein, MacDougall, & Fröbisch, 2024
  • D. lentus (Marsh, 1878)
  • D. sideropelicus Cope, 1878
  • D. tenuitectus Cope, 1896
Synonyms
  • Nothodon Marsh, 1878
  • Empedocles Cope, 1878
  • Helodectes Cope, 1880
  • Empedias Cope, 1883
  • Chilonyx Cope, 1883
  • Bolbodon Cope, 1896
  • Diadectoides Case, 1911
  • Animasaurus Case & Williston, 1912
  • Silvadectes? Kissel, 2010

Diadectes (meaning crosswise-biter) is an extinct genus of large reptiliomorphs or synapsids that lived during the early Permian period (Artinskian-Kungurian stages of the Cisuralian epoch, between 290 and 272 million years ago). Diadectes was one of the first herbivorous tetrapods, and also one of the first fully terrestrial vertebrates to attain large size.