Arctops

{{Short description|Extinct genus of therapsids}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Late Permian

| image = Arctops watsoni.jpg

| image_caption = Life restoration

| taxon = Arctops

| authority = Watson, 1914

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• {{extinct}}A. willistoni Watson, 1914 (type)

}}

Arctops ("Bear face") is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids known from the Late Permian of South Africa. It measured up to {{convert|2|m}} in length and its skull was {{convert|30|cm}} long.{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/palaeocritti/by-group/gorgonopsia/arctops|title=Arctops willistoni|website=Palaeocritti - a guide to prehistoric animals|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230005252/https://sites.google.com/site/palaeocritti/by-group/gorgonopsia/arctops|archive-date=December 30, 2016|url-status=dead}} The type species is Arctops willistoni. A second species, A. watsoni, may be synonymous with A. willistoni. A. kitchingi may be a third species of Arctops, but it was only tentatively assigned to the genus when it was first named.{{Cite thesis |degree=Ph.D. |title=Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni) |url=http://tobias-lib.uni-tuebingen.de/volltexte/2007/2935/pdf/Eva_Gebauer.pdf |last=Gebauer |first=E.V.I. |year=2007 |publisher=Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen |location=Tübingen |pages=1–316}} Both were formally synonymized with A. willistoni by Christian Kammerer in 2017.{{cite journal | last1 = Kammerer | first1 = C.F. | title = Anatomy and relationships of the South African gorgonopsian Arctops (Therapsida, Theriodontia) | journal = Papers in Palaeontology | volume = 3 | issue = 4 | pages = 583–611 | date = 2017 | doi = 10.1002/spp2.1094 }}

Image:Arctops watsoni DB.jpg