Tuesday, April 16, 2013

meet the sabre-toothed sheep-lizard

(I'm not kidding)
The dicynodont was another Triassic animal, also known in other geologic eras.
(it goes PERMAIN -> MESOZOIC (Parts 123: Triassic -> Jurassic -> Cretaceous) -> CENOZOIC)

These are hardy fellows, having as a group survived the Permian-Triassic Extinction event, the Jurassic Ecologic Chaos, and the competition with the well-adapted dinosaurs. Their heyday was apparently in the early and middle Triassic, however, when they were as numerous as perhaps 95% of all land animals.

http://eonsepochsetc.com/Mesozoic/Triassic/Tri_Animals/Dicynodonts.html
http://www.abc.net.au/science/ozfossil/ageofreptiles/northern/dicynodont.htm
http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/05/dicynodonts-that-didnt-die-late.html

Among other things, the dicynodonts are amazing as a survivor from the early Triassic to the early Cretaceous. They were once though to have all died out in the Triassic for various reasons.

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