Ophiacodontidae

Ophiacodontids !!

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Synapsida Order: Pelycosauria Family: Ophiacodontidae Genus: Ophiacodon
 * The Ophiacodontids was the best known of the family because of an extensive fossil record in North America!!
 * They have been subdivided, somewhat arbitrarily (based largely on stratigraphic position and size) into six species.
 * Ophiacodontids pelycosaur synapsids (protomammals). They were around in the late Carboniferous period. Archaethyris and Clepsydrops were the earliest Ophiacodontids. Archaethyris and its relatives were the members of this family.
 * Some of these were semi-aquatic, and few were fully aquatic, but some were fully terrestrial like Archaethyris.
 * The Ophiacodontids were like lizards in shape. Their skulls are strange because they are elonged and had huge shoulder girdles, probably for muscle to support the weight of their big heads!
 * This family is the most primitive of the Synapsids and might have been ancestral to all of the Pelycosaurs that includes Therapsids and their descendants- the mammals!!
 * By the Middle Permian, Ophiacodontids were becoming rare, and they eventually were replaced by Anomodonts, the diapsid reptiles, and the evolving Theriodonts, and then later in the Middle Permian, he Ophiacodontids became extinct.
 * The Ophiacodontids were at least 2 meters long when full grown!!
 * According to fossils, the largest ones where 2.5 meters and the smaller ones were 1.5!!
 * Their size increases as time progressed during the early Permian epoch until its extinction in the late epoch!!
 * They may have eaten fish in streams and ponds, although the high, narrow skull would seem to mitigate (it's like to argue)!!
 * Their heads were long and slender, deep jaw, and had numerous (40 or more) small teeth.
 * The Ophiacodontids weighed around 65-110 pounds!!
 * This creature was a carnivore.
 * T hey lived in wet areas where there were swamps, lakes, ponds, and rivers.
 * It must have preyed on amphibians and very likely also ate fish!
 * The Ophiacodon is thought to have spent some time in water but it wasn't fully aquatic.
 * The Ophiacodon's taxonomy is:


 * The Species include: Ophiacodon retroversa, O. Uniformis, O. major, O. mirus, O. navajoensis, O. triangulata, O. watsoni, and O. sp.

*