Lystrosauravus

Lystrosauravus (from Lystrosaurus and avus, "grandfather") is a genus of lystrosaurid dicynodont, an extinct type of therapsid (a group which modern mammals also belong to), that lived in what is now the Karoo Basin of South Africa during the late Permian (Lopingian) period. The type and only species is L. bothae, named after Professor Jennifer Botha. Lystrosauravus broadly resembles and is closely related to Lystrosaurus, including the specialised deep and deflected snout, but retains some ancestral traits found in other dicynodontoids and appears transitional towards the distinctive morphology of Lystrosaurus. Lystrosauravus is the oldest recognised lystrosaurid, dating back to the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone roughly between 256.6 and 255.24 million years ago. Lystrosauravus is rare in these deposits despite extensive collection by palaeontologists, suggesting it was either a rare component of the ecosystem or typically inhabited a different environment beyond the preserved assemblage.