Titanophoneus

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Titanophoneus
Skeletal reconstruction of Titanophoneus potens

Skeletal reconstruction of Titanophoneus potens

Temporal occurrence
Middle Permian ( Capitanium )
265.8 to 260.4 million years
Locations
Systematics
Synapsids (Synapsida)
Therapsids (Therapsida)
Dinocephalia
Anteosauridae
Anteosaurinae
Titanophoneus
Scientific name
Titanophoneus
Yefremov , 1938
species
  • Titanophoneus potens Jefremov, 1938
  • Titanophoneus adamanteus Orlow , 1958

Titanophoneus ("Giant Murderer") is an extinct genus of early carnivorous therapsids (a group of "early mammalian relatives") from the Middle Permian ( Capitanium ) of Russia . The first scientific description of the type species Titanophoneus potens comes from Iwan Antonowitsch Jefremow in 1938.

With a body length of up to 5 meters and a weight of up to 600 kilograms, Titanophoneus, along with Doliosauriscus and Anteosaurus, was one of the largest known representatives of the Anteosaurids and was the top predator of its ecosystem . Titanophoneus still had many primitive features such as the long tail and short limbs.

Fossil record and physique

Fossils of the only valid species Titanophoneus potens for a long time were found near the village of Ischejewo in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan . The remains of the second species Titanophoneus adamanteus , which was originally placed in the genus Doliosauriscus , come from the area of small uranium in the Orenburg Oblast .

A Titanophoneus rips an Ulemosaurus (artist's impression)

Thanks to a very well preserved skull and an almost complete skeleton of a young animal preserved in an anatomical association, Titanophoneus potens is the best known anteosaur. The skull of the young animal measured 26 centimeters in length, the skull length of a fully grown animal is therefore estimated to be around 80 centimeters and the maximum body length to 3 to 5 meters, which corresponds to the size of a large Anteosaurus .

The long snout was reinforced with twelve large incisors and two saber-toothed fangs . The teeth at the back of the muzzle were much smaller. The temple openings were larger than in Estemmenosuchus , but smaller and less developed than in Inostrancevia . The short limbs spread apart from the body, the long tail, the long snout and the structure of the pelvis are also reminiscent of the primitive characteristics of the sphenacodontid pelycosaurs . The thigh bones, however, are slimmer than those of the pelycosaurs.

Titanophoneus's skull was tall and narrow. The opening for the parietal organ was located on an outgrowth of bone formed by the parietals . The frontal bone and the upper edge of the eye sockets were also thickened with rough protrusions.

literature

  • King, GM, 1988, "Anomodontia" Part 17 C, Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart and New York,
  • Olson, EC (1962), Late Permian terrestrial vertebrates, USA and USSR, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. 52 (2).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Efremov, IA, 1938. The Recovery of a Triassic Anomodont in the Orenburg Province: Comptes Rendus Doklady l'Academie des Sciences de l'Union des Sovietiques Socialistes Republiques, v. 20, n. 2-3, p. 227-229.
  2. ↑ a b Palaeos: Titanophoneus
  3. ↑ Orlov, YA 1958. The carnivorous dinocephalians of the Isheevo fauna (titanosuchians). Trudi. Paleon. Inst., Acad. Sci. USSR 72: 3-113 (in Russian).
  4. ↑ Patricia Vickers-Rich and Thomas H. Rich, The Great Russian Dinosaurs, Guntar Graphics, 1993, p. 36