Lycaenops
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| Lycaenops Fossil range: late Middle Permian to early Late Permian |
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L. angusticeps L. ornatus L. kingwilli |
Lycaenops ("Wolf-Face") is a genus of carnivorous therapsid (mammal-like "reptile"). It measured about 1 meter (3 feet) long and lived during the late mid-Permian to the early Late Permian in what is now South Africa. Like the modern-day wolves from which it takes its name, Lycaenops bore a long and slender skull, with a set of dog-like fangs set into both its upper and lower jaws. These pointed canine teeth were ideal for the use of stabbing and/or tearing at the flesh of any large prey that it came upon. This species most likely hunted small vertebrates such as reptiles, small pelycosaurs, and dicynodonts such as Robertia and Cistecephalus, as well as larger dicynodonts. Lycaenops walked and ran with its long legs held close to its body. This is a feature found in mammals, but not in more primitive amniotes and synapsids, such as the pelycosaurs and early reptiles whose legs are positioned to the sides of their bodies. The ability to move like a mammal would have given Lycaenops an advantage over other land vertebrates, since it would have been able to out-run them.
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