In Depth
Whereas Cistecephalus was the ‘Permian mole’, Dicynodon appears to have been the ‘Permian Rabbit’, a title that Dicynodon earned by the large abundance of fossils. This abundance has led to a great many species being named for the genus but as often happens, particularly with extinct animals from the early days of palaeontology, many of these species have been found to be synonymous with other species.
Dicynodon was toothless save for two prominent tusks that pointed down from the upper jaw on either side of a cropping beak. It was this beak that was used to shear through vegetation. The tusks are seen as being digging devices for the purpose of exposing the roots and tubers of plants to the beak. It is these tusks and herbivorous lifestyle that has led to Dicynodon, or at least a therapsid very much like it, as being considered the ancestor to the later and larger dicynodonts of the Triassic like Lystrosaurus and Kannemeyeria.
Further Reading
– On some new genera and species of anomodont reptiles from the Karroo beds of South Africa – Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 647-674 – R. Broom – 1921. – On a collection of Karroo vertebrates from Tanganyika Territory. – Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 88(4):634-671 – S. H. Haughton – 1932. – On some new genera and species of Karroo fossil reptiles, with notes on some others. – Annals of the Transvaal Museum 18:349-386 – R. Broom – 1936. – Phylogenetic analysis of Russian Permian dicynodonts (Therapsida: Anomodontia): implications for Permian biostratigraphy and Pangaean biogeography – Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 139 (2): 157−212 – Kenneth D. Angielczyk & Audrey A. Kurkin – 2003. – A comprehensive taxonomic revision of Dicynodon (Therapsida, Anomodontia) and its implications for dicynodont phylogeny, biogeography, and biostratigraphy – Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31 (Suppl. 1): 1–158 – C. F. Kammerer, K. D. Angielczyk & J. Fr�bisch – 2011.
