Dicynodon trautscholdi

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Dicynodon trautscholdi
Fossil range: late Permian

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Synapsida
Order: Therapsida
Suborder: Anomodontia
Infraorder: Dicynodontia
Family: Dicynodontidae
Genus: Dicynodon
Species: trautscholdi
Binomial name
Dicynodon trautscholdi
Amalitskii, 1922

Dicynodon trautscholdi is a species of large Dicynodont, whose fossil remains have been found at Sokoli on the Dvina River near Archangelsk in Russia. It lived during the latest Permian, and was a contemporary of Inostrancevia, Scutosaurus and Dvinia. Like all members of the genus, this animal was toothless, except for prominent tusks, and probably cropped vegetaion with a horny beak, like a tortoise.

The contemporary species Dicynodon amalitzkii Sushkin, 1926 is closely related (Angielczyk and Kurkin 2003a, 2003b), although according to Lucas 2005, Dicynodon trautscholdi, Dicynodon amalitzkii, Elph borealis, and Vivaxosaurus permirus are all synonyms, which makes D. amalitzkii the junior synonym of D. trautscholdi. Other suggested synonyms are Gordonia annae Amalitskii, 1922, Oudenodon venyokovi Amalitskii, 1922, and Dicynodon annae (Amalitskii, 1922).

These animals may represent the ancestors of the Triassic Kannemeyeria (Angielczyk and Kurkin 2003b).

This is one of the species that featured in the Russian Dinosaur Exposition (Vickers-Rich and Rich 1993).

[edit] References

  • Kenneth D. Angielczyk and Andrey A. Kurkin (2003a), "Has the utility of Dicynodon for Late Permian terrestrial biostratigraphy been overstated?" Geology; April 2003; v. 31; no. 4; p. 363-366;
  • ------ (2003b) Phylogenetic analysis of Russian Permian dicynodonts (Therapsida: Anomodontia): implications for Permian biostratigraphy and Pangaean biogeography, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society Volume 139 Issue 2 pp.157−212 October 2003
  • Lucas, S. G., 2005, Dicynodon (Reptilia: Therapsida) from the Upper Permian of Russia: biochronologic significance: In: The Nonmarine Permian; edited by Lucas, S. G., and Zeigler, K. E., New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, Bulletin 30, p. 192-196.
  • Patricia Vickers-Rich and Thomas H. Rich, The Great Russian Dinosaurs, Guntar Graphics, 1993, pg.44

[edit] External links