| Arctops Temporal range: Late Permian
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| Artist's interpretation of A. willistoni | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Clade: | †Gorgonopsia |
| Family: | †Gorgonopsidae |
| Genus: | †Arctops Watson, 1914 |
| Type species | |
| Arctops willistoni Watson, 1914
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| Other species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Synonyms of A. willistoni: | |
Arctops ("bear face") is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids known from the Late Permian of South and Eastern Africa. It measured up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in length and its skull was 30 centimetres (12 in) long.1 The type species is Arctops willistoni, named from a poorly prepared and incomplete skull. A second species was named A. watsoni based on a complete skull in 1953, followed by a third in 1970, A. kitchingi, from a smaller, juvenile skull.2 Both were formally synonymized with A. willistoni by Christian Kammerer in 2017.3 An additional species, A. umulunshi, was described in 2025 from the Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of Zambia, named after the indigenous Icibemba word for "hunter".4
References
References
- "Arctops willistoni". Palaeocritti - a guide to prehistoric animals. Archived from the original on December 30, 2016.
- Gebauer, E.V.I. (2007). Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni) (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen. pp. 1–316.
- Kammerer, C.F. (2017). "Anatomy and relationships of the South African gorgonopsian Arctops (Therapsida, Theriodontia)". Papers in Palaeontology. 3 (4): 583–611. doi:10.1002/spp2.1094.
- Mann, Arjan; Sidor, Christian A. (2025-08-07). "Arctops umulunshi, sp. nov. (Therapsida: Gorgonopsia) from the upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of Zambia, with new information on gorgonopsian postcranial anatomy". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 45 (sup1) 2444405. doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.2444405. ISSN 0272-4634.