Diplocaulus
| Diplocaulus | ||||||||||||
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Diplocaulus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Artinskium to Wuchiapingium ( Permian ) | ||||||||||||
| 284 to 255 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Diplocaulus | ||||||||||||
| Cope , 1877 |
Diplocaulus was an amphibian-like animal from the Nectridea group . It livedin fresh watersduring the Permian . Fossils were found in North America ( Diplocaulus magnicornis ) and northwest Africa ( Diplocaulus minimus ).
features
Full-grown specimens of Diplocaulus are particularly noticeable for their large, horn-like, sloping cranial growths that give the flattened head the shape of a boomerang. The outgrowths were formed by the greatly elongated scaly bone and tabular bone, skull bones that normally take up little space at the rear corners of the tetrapod skull. The horns were not yet present in young animals. Since hundreds of fossil specimens of Diplocaulus have been found in all stages of growth, it was possible to understand how the horns grew with increasing age. Diplocaulus also differed from other nectrids by a shorter tail and fewer vertebrae. Diplocaulus was half a meter to a meter long.
Investigations on head models of Diplocaulus showed that the boomerang-shaped head acted as a wing even in lightly flowing water and provided lift if it was held roughly horizontally or slightly upwards. Diplocaulus and the similar-looking Diploceraspis may have lived on the bottom of the water and used these features of their head to rise quickly when a possible prey swam by.
literature
- Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates , Thieme, Stuttgart (1993), ISBN 3-13774-401-6
- Michael J. Benton : Paleontology of the vertebrates. 2007, ISBN 3899370724
Web links
- The Paleobiology Database Diplocaulus
- Palæos Nectridia