Cistecephalus
Name:
Cistecephalus
(Box head).
Phonetic: Sis-tee-sef-a-lus.
Named By: Richard Owen - 1876.
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Therapsida, Anomodontia, Dicynodontia.
Species: C. microrhinus (type).
Diet: Invertebrates.
Size: larger individuals up to 60 centimetres long.
Known locations: India. South Africa. Zambia.
Time period: Permian.
Fossil representation: Many specimens.
Cistecephalus
could be dubbed the mole of the Permian. The small body was very
stout with short limbs which sprawled out to the sides, not great for
speed but very good at gripping the sides of a tunnel for traction.
The forelimbs in particular show support for very powerful muscles,
and were probably the primary digging devices. The skull had an
overall flat wedge shape, something which would have allowed
Cistecephalus to more easily open its mouth,
bearing in mind that
space in a burrow would be limited.
By
being a burrower Cistecephalus could hunt for
invertebrates like worms
that had become exposed within its burrow. It’s also possible that
Cistecephalus may have ventured on the surface for
short periods,
perhaps at night in search for other invertebrate prey. As long as
Cistecephalus stayed within its burrow however it
could have lived with
a relatively high degree of safety compared to other non-burrowing
animals. It should be remembered that there also would have been
plenty of therapsid predators such as Lycaenops
that would have seen
Cistecephalus as a good sized meal if they had the
chance.
This
burrowing lifestyle goes some way to explaining the huge number of
Cistecephalus specimens found at the Cistecephalus
assemblage (a
Permian age formation in South Africa that was named after the
Cistecephalus fossils found there. As a burrowing
animal if
Cistecephalus died inside its burrow, it may
have been covered and
protected from carnivores scavenging the body. Also environmental
factors such as flooding may have drowned Cistecephalus
in its burrow,
possibly even collapsing it on top of the unfortunate animal.
Further reading
- On a new species of Cistecephalus Owen. - Annals
and Magazine of
Natural History. 3 (35): 985–997. - A. S. Brink - 1950.
- The skeleton of the mammal-like reptile Cistecephalus
with evidence
for a fossorial mode of life. - Annals of the South African Museum. 76
(5): 213–246. - Michael A. Cluver -1978.
- New insights into the biology of the Permian genus Cistecephalus
(Therapsida, Dicynodontia). - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32
(6): 1396–1410. - Tobias Nasterlack, Aurore Canoville & Anusuya
Chinsamy - 2012.
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