A primitive anomodont therapsid from the base of the Beaufort Group (Upper Permian) of South Africa

Patranomodon nyaphulii , known from a nearly complete skull, lower jaw and partial postcranial skeleton, is morphologically the most primitive anomodont therapsid yet discovered. It is from the Eodicynodon Assemblage Zone, the lowest biozone of the Beaufort Group of South Africa, which has a primitive therapsid fauna comparable with that of the Russian Zone I. Patranaomodon is primitive with respect to other anomodonts in having short palatal exposure of the premaxilla, an unreduced tabular, a slit-like interpterygoidal vacuity, a screw-shaped jaw articulation (which precludes fore-aft sliding of the lower jaw), and only three sacral vertebrae. The poorly-known Galechirus and Galepus from the younger Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone appear to be at a comparably primitive evolutionary grade, and the three genera are tentatively united in the family Galechiridae. The taxon Dromasauria is shown to be paraphyletic and therefore should be discarded.