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.