Tritheledontidae, the tritheledontids or ictidosaurs,[1] is an extinct family of small to medium-sized (about 10 to 20 cm long[1]) cynodonts. They were highly mammal-like, specialized cynodonts, although they still retained a few reptile-like anatomical traits. Tritheledontids were mainly carnivorous or insectivorous, though some species may have developed omnivory. Their skeletons show that they had a close relationship to mammals. Tritheledontids or their closest relatives may have given rise to the mammaliaforms. The tritheledontids were one of the longest lived non-mammalian therapsid lineages, living from the late Triassic to the Jurassic period. Tritheledontids became extinct in the Jurassic period, possibly due to competition with prehistoric mammals such as the eutriconodonts. They are known from finds in South America and South Africa, indicating that they may have lived only on the supercontinent of Gondwana. The family Tritheledontidae was named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1912.[2] The family is often misspelled "Trithelodontidae".
It is possible that tritheledontids had vibrissae, according to the PBS documentary, Your Inner Fish.[3] A common ancestor of all therian mammals did so.[4] It is possible that the development of the whisker sensory system played an important role in mammalian development, more generally.[4]
^ ab"Family Trithelodontidae". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015.
^Broom, R. (1912). "On a new type of cynodont from the Stormberg". Annals of the South African Museum. 7: 334–336.
^"Your Inner Fish: Episode Guide". PBS. 2014. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021.
^ abMitchinson, B.; Grant, R. A.; Arkley, K.; Rankov, V.; Perkon, I.; Prescott, T. J. (12 November 2011). "Active vibrissal sensing in rodents and marsupials". Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 366 (1581): 3037–3048. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0156. PMC 3172598. PMID 21969685.
Tritheledontidae, the tritheledontids or ictidosaurs, is an extinct family of small to medium-sized (about 10 to 20 cm long) cynodonts. They were highly...
cynodonts including mammaliaforms and their closest relatives such as Tritheledontidae and Tritylodontidae. It was erected as a node-based taxon by Liu and...
Triassic. Three groups survived the extinction at the end of Triassic: Tritheledontidae and Tritylodontidae, which both survived until the Jurassic—the latter...
related to or descended from traversodontids), and the tiny, shrew-like, Tritheledontidae, related to the Mammaliaformes. The tritheledontids died out during...
few genera that do not belong to either of these groups. The family Tritheledontidae has also been placed in Mammaliamorpha by some phylogenetic analyses...
Adelobasileus predates the non-mammalian cynodonts Tritylodontidae and Tritheledontidae by 10 million years. Distinct cranial features, especially the housing...
both belonging to Probainognathia. The first is the insectivorous Tritheledontidae, which briefly lasted into the Early Jurassic. The second is the herbivorous...
mammals today. It is possible that early mammaliaforms had vibrissae; Tritheledontidae, a group of Cynodonts, probably had whiskers. A common ancestor of...
survived into the Early Cretaceous. Another extremely mammal-like family, Tritheledontidae, are unknown later than the Early Jurassic. Mammaliaformes was the...
cynodonts persisted beyond the end of the Triassic. The insectiviorous Tritheledontidae has a few records from the Early Jurassic. The Tritylodontidae, a herbiviorous...
cynodonts were herbivorous, though some were carnivorous. The family Tritheledontidae, which first appeared near the end of the Triassic, was carnivorous...
a non-tritheledontid ictidosaur or as a basal genus in the family Tritheledontidae. Other tritheledontids include the related Irajatherium, and two clades...
Riograndia guaibensis Bonaparte, Ferigolo & Ribeiro, 2001 (Eucynodontia, Tritheledontidae) from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil: anatomical and biostratigraphic...
the least specialized of all tritheledontids. The use of the family Tritheledontidae to include Pachygenelus and several other chiniquodontoids has been...
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