Ivantosaurus

Ivantosaurus is an extinct genus of therapsid that lived in Russia during the Wordian stage of the Permian period, named in honor of Ivan Antonovich Efremov (the great Soviet science fiction writer).Some paleontologists have suggested that Ivantosaurus is a large species of Eotitanosuchus.

Ivantosaurus
Temporal range: Wordian, 267 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Synapsida
Order:
Therapsida
Suborder:
†Biarmosuchia
Family:
†Eotitanosuchidae
Genus:
†Ivantosaurus

Tchudinov, 1983
Type species
†Ivantosaurus ensifer
Tchudinov, 1983

Description

It is known only from the fragmentary remains of its jaw. Maxilla short and high. Its skull was long, about a meter in length. It was carnivorous and may have grown to a length of 6 meters, approx. Ivantosaurus would have been the largest carnivorous therapsid known, exceeding in size even the largest Late Wordian/early Capitanian anteosaurs.

Teeth

Two canine teeth are set side-to-side in Ivantosaurus' jaw and with their axes inclined forward. It is possible that this therapsid had a unique dentition (no other known animal has two sets of canine teeth), but more likely that a replacement tooth was growing in next to the old tooth about to be lost. Sigogneau-Russell (1989) seems to think this is unlikely, which would make this a quite different animal from Eotitanosuchus. As with the therocephalian family Lycosuchidae, these may simply be replacement canines. There are few known animals, living or extinct, with two sets of canines (it would be a very inefficient chewing mechanism).

See also

References
  • The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Benton, Michael J.; Shishkin, Mikhail A.; Unwin, David M. 2003. pp. 91–92.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.