Moschognathus

{{short description|Extinct genus of therapsids that lived in the Guadalupian epoch}}

{{speciesbox

| fossil_range = Middle Permian, Capitanian ~{{fossilrange|265|260}}

| image =

| image_caption =

| genus = Moschognathus

| parent_authority = Broom, 1914

| species = whaitsi

| authority = Broom, 1914

| synonyms =

• ?Struthionops intermedius Boonstra, 1952

}}

Moschognathus is an extinct genus of dinocephalian therapsid in the family Tapinocephalidae. The genus includes only the type species M. whaitsi, named by palaeontologist Robert Broom in 1914. It was a short-snouted tapinocephalid, closely related to and resembling the well-known genus Moschops, but its skull is less thickened overall has a relatively longer and shallower snout by comparison. Indeed, Moschognathus has typically been regarded as a junior synonym of Moschops (e.g. by King, 1988 and Atayman et al., 2009){{cite book |last=King |first=G. M. |year=1988 |title=Anomodontia |series=Encyclopedia of paleoherpetology, part 17C |publisher=Gustav Fischer |pages=1–174 |isbn=0895742500}}{{cite journal |last1=Atayman |first1=S. |last2=Rubidge |first2=B.S. |last3=Abdala |first3=F. |year=2009 |title=Taxonomic re-evaluation of tapinocephalid dinocephalians |journal=Palaeontologia africana |volume=44 |pages=88–90 |hdl=10539/17294 |hdl-access=free |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39675877.pdf#page=88}} since 1969 after Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra sunk Moschognathus into Moschops, albeit retained as its own doubtfully valid species.{{cite journal |last=Boonstra |first=L.D. |year=1969 |title=The fauna of the Tapinocephalus zone (Beaufort Beds of the Karoo) |journal=Annals of the South African Museum |volume=56 |issue=1}} However, researchers in the 21st century have expressed doubt over this synonymy and suggested that Moschognathus is a distinct taxon after all, including first by Christian Kammerer in a 2009 Ph.D. thesis and formally in 2015 by Alessandra D. S. Boos and colleagues (including Kammerer) in 2015.{{cite journal |last=Boos |first=A.D.S. |last2=Kammerer |first2=C.F. |last3=Schultz |first3=C.L. |last4=Paes Neto |first4=V.D. |year=2015 |title=A tapinocephalid dinocephalian (Synapsida, Therapsida) from the Rio do Rasto Formation (Paraná Basin, Brazil): Taxonomic, ontogenetic and biostratigraphic considerations |journal=Journal of South American Earth Sciences |volume=63 |pages=375–384 |doi=10.1016/j.jsames.2015.09.003 |bibcode=2015JSAES..63..375B}} Moschognathus has since began to re-enter scientific literature of dinocephalians as a valid name and treated distinct from Moschops.{{cite journal |last1=Benoit |first1=J. |last2=Kruger |first2=A. |last3=Jirah |first3=S. |last4=Fernandez |first4=V. |last5=Rubidge |first5=B. S. |year=2021 |title=Palaeoneurology and palaeobiology of the dinocephalian therapsid Anteosaurus magnificus |journal=Acta Palaeontologica Polonica |volume=66 |doi=10.4202/app.00800.2020 |doi-access=free |url=https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app66/app008002020.pdf}}

File:Anteosaurus & Moschognathus.png

The holotype specimen, AMNH FARB 5602, is a partial skeleton including the upper jaw tips, mandibles, vertebrae (including a complete cervical series from the neck), ribs, and the right pelvis and femur. In addition to the holotype specimen, a complete skull and mandibles have tentatively been assigned to Moschognathus. This specimen, AM 4950, was initially identified as a juvenile Anteosaurus prior to preparation,{{cite journal |last=Modesto |first=S.P. |last2=Rubidge |first2=B.S. |last3=de Klerk |first3=W.J. |last4=Welman |first4=J. |year=2001 |title=A dinocephalian therapsid fauna on the Ecca-Beaufort contact in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa |journal=South African Journal of Science |volume=97 |issue= |pages=161–163 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/29806626}} but was subsequently identified as a subadult Moschops by Julien Benoit and colleagues in 2016 and again in 2017.{{cite journal |last1=Benoit |first1=J. |last2=Manger |first2=P.R. |last3=Fernandez |first3=V. |last4=Rubidge |first4=B.S. |year=2016 |title=Cranial Bosses of Choerosaurus dejageri (Therapsida, Therocephalia): Earliest Evidence of Cranial Display Structures in Eutheriodonts |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=11 |issue=8 |pages=e0161457 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0161457 |pmid=27548428 |pmc=4993441 |bibcode=2016PLoSO..1161457B |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |last=Benoit |first=J. |last2=Manger |first2=P.R.|last3=Norton |first3=L. |last4=Fernandez |first4=V. |last5=Rubidge |first5=B.S. |title=Synchrotron scanning reveals the palaeoneurology of the head-butting Moschops capensis (Therapsida, Dinocephalia) |journal=PeerJ |year=2017 |volume=5 |pages=e3496 |doi=10.7717/peerj.3496 |doi-access=free |pmid=28828230 |pmc=5554600}} This skull was argued to belong instead to Moschognathus in a Ph.D. thesis by Saniye Neumann, and this proposal was formally adopted in subsequent literature.{{Cite journal|last1=Benoit |first1=J. |last2=Norton |first2=L. A. |last3=Jirah |first3=S. |year=2023 |title=The maxillary canal of the titanosuchid Jonkeria (Synapsida, Dinocephalia) |journal=The Science of Nature |volume=110 |issue=4 |at=27 |doi=10.1007/s00114-023-01853-w |pmid=37272962|pmc=10241669 }}