Diademodon
Name:
Diademodon.
Phonetic: Di-a-dem-no-don.
Named By: Harry Govier Seeley - 1894.
Synonyms: Cragievarus, Diademodon
grossarthi, Diademodon mastacus, Diademodon rhodesiensis
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Therapsida, Cynodontia, Diademodontidae.
Species: D. tetragonus
(type).
Diet: Ominvore?
Size: About 2 meters long.
Known locations: Antarctica - Fremouw
Formation. Argentina. Namibia - Omingonde Formation. South
Africa - Burgersdorp Formation. Zambia - Ntawere Formation.
Time period: Olenekian to Anisian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Remains of many individuals.
The cynodonts are known to come in a variety of sizes, but at up to two meters in length, Diademodon is easily amongst the largest known cynodonts. Like other cynodonts, Diademodon may have been an omnivore eating both certain parts of plants as well as other animals and carrion. Diademodon lived during the early Triassic, and most of the known fossils are known frim Africa. However, fossils attributed to Diademodon have now also been located in South America and Antarctica, further suggesting that as a genus Diademodon became very successful and widespread.
Further reading
- The palaeoecology of the non-mammalian cynodonts Diademodon
and
Cynognathus from the Karoo Basin of South Africa,
using stable light
isotope analysis. - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology 223 (3–4): 303. - J. Botha, J.
Lee-Thorp & A. Chinsamy - 2005.
- Diademodon tetragonus Seeley, 1894 (Therapsida: Cynodontia)
in the Triassic of South America and its biostratigraphic
implications. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29 (3):
852. - A. N. G. Martinelli, M. D. L. Fuente
&
F. Abdala - 2009.
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