Synapsids are a group of vertebrates that are typically characterized by having a temporal fenestra, an opening low in the skull roof behind each eye, leaving a bony arch beneath each; this accounts for their name. They include pelycosaurs like Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus, therapsids like Gorgonops, Diictodon, Lystrosaurus, Placerias and the cynodonts, which include animals like Thrinaxodon, like the ones seen in New Blood and all mammals, which are the only synapsids living today and are the dominant land animals of the present day. Synapsids can therefore be divided into mammalian synapsids, or mammals; and non-mammalian synapsids, also known as mammal-like reptiles, which are all synapsids other than mammals, with the last of the non-mammalian synapsids being the tritylodontid cynodonts, which became extinct in the Early Cretaceous, approximately 100 million years ago.
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