Brachyopomorpha

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title: "Brachyopomorpha" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["trematosauria", "triassic-temnospondyls", "jurassic-temnospondyls", "cretaceous-temnospondyls", "early-triassic-first-appearances", "cretaceous-extinctions"] description: "Extinct clade of amphibians" topic_path: "general/trematosauria" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachyopomorpha" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Extinct clade of amphibians ::

| fossil_range = Early Triassic - Middle Cretaceous, | image = Pelorocephalus1DB.jpg | image_caption = Pelorocephalus tenax | taxon = Brachyopomorpha | authority = Warren and Marsicano, 2000 | subdivision_ranks = Genera and superfamilies | subdivision =

• Bothriceps
• Keratobrachyops
• Brachyopoidea

Brachyopomorpha is a clade of stereospondyl temnospondyls within the infraorder Trematosauria. It was constructed in 2000 to include Bothriceps australis and the superfamily Brachyopoidea. It is phylogenetically defined as a stem-based taxon including Pelorocephalus and all taxa closer to it than to Rhytidosteus. In contrast, Brachyopoidea is defined as a node-based taxon including Brachyops and Pelorocephalus and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor. Because Bothriceps is not thought to be a descendant of that recent common ancestor and would be more basal than it, the genus is placed just outside Brachyopoidea and is considered to be a sister taxon to the clade.

|caption=Damiani and Kitching, 2003 |clades={{clade| style=font-size:80%;line-height:80% |label1=Brachyopomorpha |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=Bothriceps |2=Keratobrachyops}} |label2=Brachyopoidea |2={{clade |1=Brachyopidae |2=Chigutisauridae

Bothriceps was once considered to be a brachyopid within Brachyopoidea, but is now placed on the brachyopoid stem closer to Brachyopoidea than to Rhytidosteidae due to the presence of several plesiomorphies (ancestral characters). The probable presence of a tabular horn in Bothriceps also suggests that it is a basal brachyopomorph rather than a brachyopid.

Keratobrachyops, once assigned to Chigutisauridae, is now thought to be a basal brachyopomorph closely related to Bothriceps.

References

References

1. Warren, A.. (2000). "A phylogeny of the Brachyopoidea". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
2. Yates, A. M.. (2000). "The phylogeny of the "higher temnospondyls" (Vertebrata, Choanata)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
3. Damiani, R. J.. (2003). "A new brachyopid temnospondyl from the ''Cynognathus'' Assemblage Zone, Upper Beaufort Group, South Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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