Arctops

{{Short description|Extinct genus of therapsids}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = Late Permian | image = Arctops watsoni.jpg | image_caption = Artist's interpretation of ''A. willistoni'' | taxon = Arctops | authority = Watson, 1914 | type_species = '''''Arctops willistoni''''' | type_species_authority = Watson, 1914 | subdivision_ranks = Other species | subdivision = * {{extinct}}'''''A. umulunshi''''' {{small|Mann & Sidor, 2025}} | synonyms = {{small|'''Synonyms of ''A. willistoni'':'''}} * '''''A. watsoni''''' {{small|Brink & Kitching, 1953}} * '''''A. kitchingi''''' {{small|Signogneau, 1970}}

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'''''Arctops''''' ("bear face") is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids known from the Late Permian of South and Eastern Africa. It measured up to {{convert|2|m}} in length and its skull was {{convert|30|cm}} long.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The type species is '''''Arctops willistoni''''', named from a poorly prepared and incomplete skull. A second species was named ''A. watsoni'' based on a complete skull in 1953, followed by a third in 1970, ''A. kitchingi'', from a smaller, juvenile skull.<ref name=GEVI07>{{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}}</ref> Both were formally synonymized with ''A. willistoni'' by Christian Kammerer in 2017.<ref name="kammerer">{{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 }}</ref> An additional species, '''''A. umulunshi''''', was described in 2025 from the Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of Zambia, named after the indigenous Icibemba word for "hunter".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mann |first1=Arjan |last2=Sidor |first2=Christian A. |date=2025-08-07 |title=''Arctops umulunshi'', sp. nov. (Therapsida: Gorgonopsia) from the upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of Zambia, with new information on gorgonopsian postcranial anatomy |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |language=en |volume=45 |issue=sup1 |article-number=2444405 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2024.2444405 |issn=0272-4634}}</ref> [[Image:Arctops watsoni DB.jpg|thumb|left|Artist's interpretation of ''A. willistoni'']]

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Gorgonopsia Category:Prehistoric therapsid genera Category:Lopingian synapsids of Africa Category:Fossil taxa described in 1914 Category:Taxa named by D. M. S. Watson Category:Lopingian genus first appearances Category:Lopingian genus extinctions