Synapsids (Greek, 'fused arch'), synonymous with
theropsids (Greek, 'beast-face'), are a group of animals that includes
mammals and every animal more closely related to mammals than to other living
amniotes. They are easily separated from other amniotes 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. Primitive synapsids are usually called
pelycosaurs or pelycosaur-grade synapsids; more advanced mammal-like ones,
therapsids. The non-mammalian members are described as
mammal-like reptiles in classical systematics; they can also be called
stem mammals or
proto-mammals. Synapsids evolved from basal amniotes and are one of the two major groups of the later amniotes; the other is the
sauropsids, a group that includes modern
reptiles and
birds. The distinctive temporal fenestra developed in the ancestral synapsid about 312
million years ago, during the
Late Carboniferous period.