| Edaphosauridae | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mounted skeleton ofEdaphosaurus pogonias in theField Museum of Natural History | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Sphenacomorpha |
| Family: | †Edaphosauridae Cope, 1882 |
| Type species | |
| †Edaphosaurus pogonias Cope, 1882 | |
| Genera | |
Edaphosauridae is a family of mostly large (up to 3 m (9.8 ft) or more)Late Carboniferous toEarly Permiansynapsids. Edaphosaur fossils are so far known only fromNorth America andEurope.
They were the earliest knownherbivorous amniotes and, along with theDiadectidae, the earliest known herbivoroustetrapods.[3] The head is small in relation to the bulky body, and there is a tall sail along the back, which may have functioned as athermoregulatory device.
The interrelationships of Edaphosauridae was investigated in details by David M. Mazierski and Robert R. Reisz (2010). Thecladogram below is modified after their phylogenetic analysis.[4]
| Edaphosauridae | |
Below is a cladogram modified from the analysis of Benson (2012):[5]
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