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| Lycosuchids Temporal range: Middle Permian,
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| Partial skull of Lycosuchus in the Museum für Naturkunde, with "double canines" visible | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Clade: | †Therocephalia |
| Family: | †Lycosuchidae Nopcsa, 1923 |
| Valid genera | |
| Synonyms | |
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Lycosuchidae is an extinct family of therocephalian therapsids from the Middle Permian Beaufort Group of South Africa. It currently includes only two monospecific genera, Lycosuchus, represented by L. vanderrieti, which was named by paleontologist Robert Broom in 1903, and Simorhinella, represented by S. baini, which was named by Broom in 1915. Both species are characterized by their large size, reduced tooth counts and short, relatively low and broad snouts.
Two sets of functional enlarged canine teeth, so-called "double canines", were once regarded as a defining feature of lycosuchids. However, recent studies have proposed that they actually represent co-existing functional and replacement canines, and various lycosuchid specimens show the teeth at different stages of growth and replacement. Nonetheless, the pattern of tooth replacement appears to be unusual in lycosuchids, and the alternating canines appear to occur concurrently more than in other predatory therapsid groups.[1] Lycosuchids are among the earliest known therocephalians and are also thought to be the most basal. The Russian genus Gorynychus, containing two species, may also belong to the family, although this result is not typically recovered.
- ^ Abdala, F.; Kammerer, C. F.; Day, M. O.; Jirah, S.; Rubidge, B. S. (2014). "Adult morphology of the therocephalian Simorhinella bainifrom the middle Permian of South Africa and the taxonomy, paleobiogeography, and temporal distribution of the Lycosuchidae". Journal of Paleontology. 88 (6): 1139. doi:10.1666/13-186.