Paleontologists recently announced a new find, as Sci-News reports:
Named Lisowicia bojani, the ancient creature belongs to Dicynodontia (dicynodonts), a group of plant-eating, mammal-like reptiles.
“Dicynodonts were among the most abundant and diverse synapids — early four-legged land vertebrates that gave rise to modern-day mammals — from the middle Permian (around 299 to 251 million years ago) to the early Late Triassic (around 237 million years ago),” said Dr. Tomasz Sulej from Poland’s Institute of Paleobiology and Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki of Uppsala University.
“Fossils of Triassic dicynodonts are extremely abundant in African, Asian, and North and South Americans deposits but are comparatively poorly known from the other regions like Europe.”
Mammal-like reptiles, wish I knew a thing or three about cladistics. The remark might make more sense then.
At 9 tons mass, though, they would have been a bit of a bite for most predators.
