What is Tritylodont?
{{Taxobox | name = Tritylodonts | fossil_range = [[Upper Triassic]] – mid [[Cretaceous]] | image = Oligokyphus BW.jpg | image_width = 240px | image_caption = ''[[Oligokyphus]]'' | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Chordate|Chordata]] | classis = [[Synapsid]]a | ordo = [[Therapsida]] | subordo = [[Cynodontia]] | infraordo = [[Eucynodontia]] | unranked_familia = [[Cynognathia]] | familia = '''Tritylodontidae''' | familia_authority = [[Edward Drinker Cope|Cope]], 1884}} [[File:Kayentatherium wellesi.jpg|thumb|right|Skull of ''[[Kayentatherium]]'']] [[Image:Kayentatherium.JPG|thumb|right|teeth from ''Kayentatherium'']] '''Tritylodonts''' <ref>named after the shape of animal's [[teeth]], with three [[cusp]]s.</ref> were small to medium-sized [[mammal]]-like [[cynodont]]s. They varied in size from a rabbit to a beaver.<ref name=KK>Kermack D.M. & K.A. 1984. ''The evolution of mammalian characters''. London: Croom Helm, 40{{ndash}}44. {{ISBN|0-7099-1534-9}}</ref> They were the last family of the non-mammalian [[synapsid]]s. One of the last cynodont lines to appear, the [[Family (biology)|family]] Tritylodontidae descended from a ''[[Cynognathus]]''-like cynodont. Their teeth had three cusps (bumps) which gave them their name. The tritylodonts were [[herbivorous]], chewing through [[vegetation]], such as [[Plant stem|stem]]s, [[leaves]], and [[root]]s. Tritylodonts have no [[canine]] teeth, just [[incisor]]s and cheek teeth. The jaw worked by grinding forward and backwards, shredding the food between the ridges of the teeth.<ref name=KK/> They were the longest surviving of all the non-mammalian [[therapsid]]s. They appeared in the latest [[Triassic]] period, and persisted through the [[Jurassic]] until the middle of the [[Cretaceous]].<ref>Ruta M; Botha-Brink J; Mitchell S.A. & Benton M.J. 2013. The radiation of cynodonts and the ground plan of mammalian morphological diversity. ''Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences'' '''280''' (1769). [http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1769/20131