Labidosaurikos
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Labidosaurikos Temporal range: Early Permian, 279–272 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Captorhinida |
| Family: | Captorhinidae |
| Subfamily: | Moradisaurinae |
| Genus: | Labidosaurikos |
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Labidosaurikos is a genus of extinct captorhinid anapsid reptile that lived around 279 to 272 million years ago during Kungurian age of the lower Permian. The American Paleontologist John Willis Stovall first described Labidosaurikos in 1950, naming it “Labidosaurus like” for the striking similarity of the holotype skull of his specimen to the cranial anatomy of another captorhinid Labidosaurus hamatus.Labidosaurus or generally called “lipped lizard” is another genus of the family Captorhinidae whose name is derived from the Greek “forceps lizard” based on (labid-,labis-)/ τσιμπίδα ("forceps" or “pinsers”) and σαυρος/sauros ("lizard")
Labidosaurikos is an important find in Permian red beds of North American, where captorhinids are commonly found, as it is a key discovery in the evolution of herbivory in large captorhinids given its multi-row tooth plates. This is a characteristic it does not share with its name-sake Labidosaurus hamatus whose dentition resembles more basal, mainly single-tooth-rowed forms . The first fossils of Labidosaurikos came from Oklahoma and latter finds were discovered in Texas.
Most information attributed to Labidosaurikos is based on the cranial anatomy of the only well supported species type Labidosaurikos meachami as there are no collections of the appendicular skeleton. Captorhinid anatomy and interrelationships are known primarily from other lower Permian genera such as Romeria, Protocaptorhinus, Rhiodenticulatus, Captorhinus and Labidosaurus. Labidosaurikos is a part of a less well known collection captorhinids from younger Permian deposits, Moradisaurus is an example.
Labidosaurikos were large herbivorous anapsid reptiles with heavily ornamented skull and had a hooked snout characteristic of all captorhinids. The consensus on representative species of the genus Labidosaurikos is Labidosaurikos meachami as this is the proposed species type with the most complete fossil skull and jaw. Estimations of body length come in at about 1.3 meters based on ratios of body length to skull length in other large herbivorous captorhinids like Captorhinus aguti. However most anatomical descriptions are limited by the fact that only skulls and cranial and mandible fragments make up the fossil record. Without appendicular skeleton or fragments there cannot be evidence-based description of more morphology aside from the skull.
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Wikipedia