Mastodonsaurus
| Mastodonsaurus | ||||||||||
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Mastodonsaurus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||
| Anisium to Rhaetium ( Central and Upper Triassic ) | ||||||||||
| 247.2 to 201.3 million years | ||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Mastodonsaurus | ||||||||||
| Hunter , 1828 | ||||||||||
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Mastodonsaurus is a genus temnospondyler amphibians from the Central to Upper Triassic (247.2 to 201.3 mya ) of Europe. This genus was one of the largest amphibians in the history of the earth , but wassurpassedby Prionosuchus .
description
Mastodonsaurus reached a length of more than five meters. The skull was from the top ( dorsal ) considered triangular and with 1.40 meters in length relatively large. The tail, on the other hand, was very short. Mastodonsaurus was extremely bulky, there were many small plates of bone under its skin , and it could therefore have weighed just under a ton and a half. He had five toes on each foot, perhaps with webbed were connected, and rather short and stocky legs, not for a longer stay were suitable ashore. At the tip of its mouth it had two teeth that protruded through the upper jaw.
Way of life
The habitat of Mastodonsaurus were probably the still waters of his time. Presumably he could crawl the distance between different bodies of water. Mastodonsaurus hunted other temnospondyles, fish and archosaurs . Due to its size, a full-grown individual probably had no predators . However, bite marks from Batrachotomus were found.
Naming
In popular scientific literature, the name mastodonsaurus is often incorrectly translated as “ mastodon lizard”, whereby it is assumed that the reference to the mastodon is intended to emphasize the enormous size of this animal. Mastodonsaurus , however, means " teat- tooth lizard" ( Gr. Mastos - "breast, teat", odon - "tooth", saura - "lizard"). The name was given by Georg Friedrich von Jäger in 1828 - for a single tooth ( holotype ) that was found in Baden-Württemberg and, according to Jäger, had a teat-like shape: “This tooth is particularly distinguished by its teat-like tip (... ) The tooth ends in a curved tip, which has a navel-shaped depression in its center and a small elevation in the middle. ”Jäger did not realize that the tooth was actually damaged - in fact, the teeth were from Mastodonsaurus conically shaped. Jäger later correctly associated the tooth with other, larger bones from the back of a skull. Now he recognized similarities to today's salamanders and, based on these findings, described a new animal that he called Salamandroides giganteus ("gigantic salamander-like"). However, since the name Mastodonsaurus was given first, it has priority ( priority rule ) according to the International Rules for Zoological Nomenclature , which is why the name Salamandroides is invalid today.
literature
- Lexicon of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals Dorling Kindersley 2001 pp. 60–61
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mastodonsaurus - Age range and collections. In: The Paleobiology Database. Retrieved April 4, 2010 .
- ↑ Ben Creisler: Adventures in Etymology: Oplosaurus, Mastodonsaurus. In: The Dinosaur Mailing List. 2002, accessed April 4, 2010 .
Web links
- The Paleobiology Database Mastodonsaurus