(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1961-08-01) Brink, A. S.
A very interesting ancestral type of Cynodont is described in reasonable detail
from serial sections, graphical figures, and a complete wax model, four times
natural size. The form is recognised as a new genus and species, for which the
name Scalopocynodon gracilis is proposed. It is the earliest true Cynodont, from
the base of the lower Cistecephalus-zone. Although its nearest allies are the somewhat
later Silphedestids and Procynosuchids, it has unmistakably very close affinity
with the base of the Ictidosuchid-Scloposaurid branch of the Therocephalians.
Thus new light is cast on the origin of the Cynodonts and their general relationship
with the Therocephalia. The specimen was thought to be a Scaloposaurus before
it was decided to subject it to serial grinding.