2020 is finally at an end, so it looks like it’s time once again to review the year in non-mammalian synapsid research!

You can tell 2020 was the worst because I didn’t describe a single new synapsid species this year. In part, that’s due to spending most of my energy on larger-scale synthetic projects, but I had a few new taxa that were supposed to come out and got delayed by #2020 stuff...

Thankfully my colleagues in the synapsid research community have not been so idle, naming 13 new species this year. The vast majority (9) were cynodonts, there were also 2 pelycosaurs, 1 dicynodont, and 1 therocephalian.

For new pelycosaurs the highlight was definitely the long-awaited description by Berman et al. of Martensius, the Bromacker caseid, a plesiomorphic early member of the group known from beautiful material: https://t.co/GUJRKvtNwc

No new biarmosuchians or dinocephalians (though watch out next year…), but there was one new dicynodont: a basal dicynodontoid, Taoheodon, part of an increasingly diverse upper Permian fauna from China: https://t.co/lpq2ElPADw