INTRODUCTION

In 1989, 1990, and 1992, members of a joint Malawi Department of Antiquities-Southern Methodist University field crew investigating the Cretaceous Dinosaur Beds of northern Malawi made day trips to Permian Karoo Supergroup rocks near Chiweta (Figure 1). Among other specimens collected were three therapsid skulls, two of the dicynodont Oudenodon and one of a burnetiamorph biarmosuchian (sensu Sidor and Welman 2003). The burnetiamorph skull was prepared by Will Downs, who was also a member of the field parties in Malawi (Jacobs 1993). He referred to the skull, because of its odd excrescences, as the head of the devil. His enthusiasm for this fossil encouraged us in this study, both to understand the affinity of the specimen, but also for its context and age. The description provided here is based on a cast because the original is not available at this time. The thorough study of the Chiweta Beds and the naming of this new taxon will be overseen by Elizabeth M. Gomani, but we present here an initial description that we hope our friend Will, to whom this paper is dedicated, would appreciate. In addition, we report a radiometric age determination for basalt that caps the Karoo Chikwawa Group (Habgood 1963) in southern Malawi.