Tiarajudens
Name:
Tiarajudens
(Tiaraju tooth).
Phonetic: Te-ah-ra-yu-dens.
Named By: Juan Carlos Cisneros, Fernando Abdala,
Bruce S. Rubidge, Paula Camboim Dentzien-Dias & Ana de
Oliveira Bueno - 2011.
Classification: Chordata, Therapsida,
Anomocephaloidea.
Species: T. eccentricus
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Skull 22.5 centimetres long.
Known locations: Brazil.
Time period: Capitanian of the Permian.
Fossil representation: Almost complete skull.
Dubbed
a ‘sabre-toothed anomodont’, Tiarajudens was
a quadrupedal
herbivore that possessed a pair of enlarged sabre-like canine teeth.
Despite the presence of these teeth, Tiarajudens
was almost
certainly a herbivore since the incisors at the front of the mouth are
spoon shaped and arranged for slicing plants while the rear teeth could
mash them together. The sabre-teeth are unusual for a herbivore,
but later dicynodont descendants of the anomodonts would develop large
tusks for the purpose of uprooting plants so that they could be eaten.
Therefore the canine teeth of Tiarajudens were
probably used for the
same purpose, but they had yet to evolve into a tusk form. Although
it lacks the enlarged canine teeth, the African genus Anomocephalus
is thought to be a close relative of Tiarajudens.
The
discovery of Tiarajudens is one born out of the
modern information
age; the fossil location of Tiarajudens was found
by looking
satellite photographs on Google Earth.
Further reading
- Dental Occlusion in a 260-Million-Year-Old Therapsid with Saber
Canines from the Permian of Brazil, Juan Carlos Cisneros, Fernando
Abdala, Bruce S. Rubidge, Paula Camboim Dentzien-Dias &
Ana de Oliveira Bueno - 2011.
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