What are Therapsids?
Therapsids (meaning “beast face”) is a class of synapsids, animals dominant on Earth during the mid to late Permian period (about 300 to 251 million years ago). Synapsids themselves are one of two major groups of amniotes (egg-laying animals), the other being sauropsids, or the true reptiles. Non-therapsid synapsids, the pelycosaurs, were actually more dominant during the Permian than the therapsids, but the therapsids are significant because they eventually evolved into mammals, survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction that killed the dinosaurs, and went on to become the dominant group of terrestrial vertebrates, culminating in the evolution of Homo sapiens. Therapsids emerged during the early Permian, and are considered part of the first wave of amniote diversity. Some of them, like the cynodonts (“dog teeth”) remarkably resemble modern-day animals, including differentiated teeth, a bulging braincase, and walking in an upright manner (not bipedal but upright, distinctive from rept
