Scapanops neglecta

Scapanops Temporal range: Early Permian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Temnospondyli
Family:	†Dissorophidae
Clade:	†Eucacopinae
Genus:	†Scapanops Schoch & Sues, 2013
Type species
†Scapanops neglecta Schoch & Sues , 2013

Scapanops is an extinct genus of dissorophid temnospondyl amphibian known from the Early Permian Nocona Formation of north-central Texas, United States. It contains only the type species Scapanops neglecta, which was named by Rainer R. Schoch and Hans-Dieter Sues in 2013. Scapanops differs from other dissorophids in having a very small skull table, which means that its eye sockets are unusually close to the back of the skull. The eye sockets are also very large and spaced far apart. Scapanops was probably small-bodied (around 25 to 50 centimetres (9.8 to 19.7 in) long) with a proportionally large head and short trunk and tail. Like other dissorophids, it probably spent most of its life on land.

The only known skull of Scapanops is 7.9 centimetres (3.1 in) long. Scapanops is distinguished from other dissorophids by five unique features or autapomorphies: a large spacing between the orbits or eye sockets, giving the skull an oval-shaped outline; a very small skull table behind the orbits; a long snout twice as long as the skull table and proportionally longer than that of any other dissorophid; a jaw jount (the quadrate condyle) positioned farther forward on the skull than it is in other dissorophids; and a skull roof that is covered in small ridges, but not pits as in most other dissorophids. It shares several features (synapomorphies) with the dissorophids Conjunctio and Cacops, including and bony plates called osteoderms that are fused to the vertebrae. The osteoderms form a single row along the back. Scapanops and Conjunctio both have numerous small teeth lining their jaws, suggesting that they ate small prey. Other closely related dissorophids have fewer and larger teeth, meaning that they probably ate larger prey.

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