Қазба қалдықтарынан табылған Какопс амфибиясы

Extinct genus of amphibians
Automatic taxobox
| fossil range = Early Permian,
| image = Cacops Field Museum. jpg
| image caption = Skeleton of Cacops aspidephorus in the Field Museum
| taxon = Cacops
| authority = Williston, 1910 Cacops is one of the few olsoniforms (dissorophids and the larger trematopids) whose ontogeny is known. Cacops fossils were almost exclusively known from the Cacops Bone Bed of the Lower Permian Arroyo Formation of Texas for much of the 20th century.

Cacops aspidephorus is the most famous dissorophid, in part due to a majority of its skeleton having been known for over a century. Over 50 specimens have been found in the Cacops Bone Bed in Baylor County, Texas, but was later synonymized with Cacops aspidephorus by Milner (1985). Cacops morrisi is named in honor of Tony Morris, who discovered one of its two specimens.

American paleontologist Samuel W. Williston used the details of the species Cacops aspidephorus to first describe its features. The skull is very box like and its cheeks aligned almost at a right angle to the skull table. The external cranial ornamentation is noticeable on the skull table and on top of the ridges that border the numerous depressions. One significant ontogenetic change in Cacops is a more evenly distributed ornamentation in the adults. Like other dissorophids, the temporal region of Cacops’ skull was dominated by the tympanic embayment, which likely housed a large tympanum. Marginal teeth are recurved and thinner than in other temnospondyls. Cacops has fewer, but larger, teeth than in most other dissorophids. The osteoderms are associated with only the first 15 vertebrae, beginning at the axis. They are relatively narrow, especially posteriorly, and are subrectangular in dorsal profile, except for the first osteoderm which is more triangular. Thus, the discovery of a slender stapes in Cacops aspidephorus suggested that Cacops had an ability to hear airborne sound. Early amniotes that were contemporary with Cacops lacked a tympanum; this difference between these terrestrial vertebrates suggests these two groups had very different abilities to hear airborne sound.

The locomotion of Cacops aspidephorus has been explored through two studies by David Dilkes. Two series of osteoderms of the presacral vertebral column affect the biomechanics of the axial skeleton. Cacops have an internal series, which consist of an osteoderm fused to the distal tips of each neural spine and an external series, which lie dorsal to and between the segments of the internal series. The portions of the vertebral column with osteoderms had limited lateral flexion, thus limiting lateral movement. The authors suggested that Cacops may have had the ability to move forward in short running spurts or that it may have also used a symmetrical walk similar to modern crocodilians or salamanders, in which its body is supported by opposite movements of the front and hind limbs.