Back Cistecephalus Catalan Cistecephalus Spanish Cistecephalus French כיסטצפאלוס HE Cistecephalus microrhinus Italian システケファルス Japanese Cistecephalus Dutch Cistecefal Polish Cistecephalus Russian Cistecephalus Swedish
| Cistecephalus Temporal range: Wuchiapingian,
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| Skull in front view, Natural History Museum, Bonn University | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | †Anomodontia |
| Clade: | †Dicynodontia |
| Family: | †Cistecephalidae |
| Genus: | †Cistecephalus Owen, 1876 |
| Type species | |
| †Cistecephalus microrhinus Owen, 1876
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Cistecephalus is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the Late Permian of southern Africa (South Africa and Zambia). It was a small, specialised, burrowing dicynodont, possibly with habits similar to a modern mole. The head was flattened and wedge-shaped, the body long, and the forelimbs very strong, with similarities in structure to the forelimb of modern burrowing mammals.[1]
It was one of the first genera of dicynodonts to be described, by Richard Owen, in 1876.
Cistecephalus could reach up to 60 centimetres (24 in) in length.
- ^ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 190. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.