Synapsids

**Synapsids** – not to be confused with therapsids, which are a subordinate group to synapsids – are a group of animals that includes mammals and every animal more closely related to mammals than to the other members, reptiles and birds, included in the amniotes clade. They are easily separated from other amniotes by having a temporal fenestra, an opening low in the skull roof behind each eye, leaving a bony arch beneath each; this accounts for their name. Primitive synapsids are usually called pelycosaurs or pelycosaur-grade synapsids. This informal term consists of all synapsids which are not therapsids, a monophyletic more advanced mammal-like group. The non-mammalian synapsids are described as **mammal-like reptiles** in classical systematics; they can also be called **stem mammals** or **proto-mammals**. Synapsids evolved from basal amniotes and are one of the two major groups of the later amniotes, the other being the sauropsids, a group that includes modern reptiles and birds. The distinctive temporal fenestra developed in the ancestral synapsid about 312 million years ago, during the Late Carboniferous period.

Synapsids were the largest terrestrial vertebrates in the Permian period, 299 to 251 million years ago, although some of the larger pareiasaurs at the end of the Permian could match them in size. As with other groups then extant, their numbers and variety were severely reduced by the Permian–Triassic extinction. By the time of the extinction at the end of the Permian, all the older forms of synapsids (known as pelycosaurs) were already gone, having been replaced by the more advanced therapsids. Although the dicynodonts and eutheriodonts, the latter consisting of the Eutherocephalia (Therocephalia) and Epicynodontia (Cynodontia), continued into the Triassic period as the only known surviving therapsids, archosaurs became the largest and most numerous land vertebrates in the course of this period. The *Lisowicia bojani*, a discovery first reported in 2008, was the size of an elephant. The cynodont group Probainognathia, which includes Mammaliaformes, were the only synapsids who outlasted the Triassic. After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the synapsids (in the form of mammals) again became the largest land animals as well as becoming the largest marine animals.

The synapsids are traditionally divided into a primitive group and an advanced group, known respectively as pelycosaurs and therapsids. 'Pelycosaurs' make up the six most primitive families of synapsids. They were all rather lizard-like, with sprawling gait and possibly horny scutes. The therapsids contain the more advanced synapsids, having a more erect pose and possibly hair, at least in some forms. In traditional taxonomy, the Synapsida encompasses two distinct grades successively closer to mammals: the low-slung pelycosaurs have given rise to the more erect therapsids, who in their turn have given rise to the mammals. In traditional vertebrate classification, the Pelycosauria and Therapsida were both considered orders of the subclass Synapsida.

In phylogenetic nomenclature, the terms are used somewhat differently, as the daughter clades are included. Most papers published during the 21st century have treated "Pelycosauria" as an informal grouping of primitive members. Therapsida has remained in use as a clade containing both the traditional therapsid families and mammals. However, in practical usage, the terms are used almost exclusively when referring to the more basal members that lie outside of Mammaliaformes.