page_title: Ufudocyclops
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Ufudocyclops / Description
context_page_description: Ufudocyclops is an extinct genus of stahleckeriid dicynodont from the Middle Triassic of South Africa. It was found in the Burgersdorp Formation, part of the uppermost Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin. The type and only known species is U. mukanelai. It was a large, beaked herbivore like other Triassic dicynodonts, lacking tusks, and is mostly characterised by unique features of the skull. It is known from three specimens, two of which were previously referred to the Tanzanian dicynodont Angonisaurus. The separation of Ufudocyclops from Angonisaurus indicates that the Middle Triassic fauna of the Beaufort Group in South Africa was part of a larger shared fauna with those of the Manda Beds in Tanzania, as was previously supposed, and suggests that they were separated as more localised faunas, possibly by geographic barriers or in time. Ufudocyclops then would have been a unique part of the uppermost Cynognathus Assemblage Zone in South Africa.
context_section_description: Ufudocyclops is a large dicynodont, with the largest specimen reconstructed to have an estimated skull length of 35 centimetres (14 in) and the smaller complete holotype skull at approximately 29 centimetres (11 in) long, and an estimated overall body size similar to that of Kannemeyeria. Only skulls and one partial lower jaw are definitively known, and no postcrania from the body has been identified, but it likely resembled other stahleckeriid dicynodonts with a heavily-built body, short tail, and stocky limbs, possibly including upright hind-limbs paired with sprawling forelimbs like other large dicynodonts. Like some other stahleckeriids, Ufudocyclops appears to have lacked the tusks characteristic of many other dicynodonts, and was completely toothless.
caption: Scale diagram of Ufudocyclops to a human