Lystrosaurus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lystrosaurus
Temporal range: Late
PermianEarly Triassic,
255250 Ma
Pre

O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N

Lystrosaurus hedini skeleton

at the Museum of
Paleontology, Tuebingen

Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Clade:
Order:

Animalia
Chordata
Synapsida
Therapsida
Dicynodonti
Infraorder:
a
Lystrosaurid
Family:
ae
Lystrosauru
Genus:
s
Cope, 1870

Species
List[show]
Lystrosaurus (/lstrsrs/; "shovel lizard") is a genus of Late Permian and Early Triassic
Period dicynodont therapsids, which lived around 250 million years ago in what is now
Antarctica, India, and South Africa. Four to six species are currently recognized, although from

the 1930s to 1970s the number of species was thought to be much higher. One specimen
unearthed in Karoo measured 2.5 meters long.[2]
Being a dicynodont, Lystrosaurus had only two teeth, a pair of tusk-like canines, and is thought
to have had a horny beak that was used for biting off pieces of vegetation. Lystrosaurus was a
heavily built, herbivorous animal, approximately the size of a pig. The structure of its shoulders
and hip joints suggests that Lystrosaurus moved with a semi-sprawling gait. The forelimbs were
even more robust than the hindlimbs, and the animal is thought to have been a powerful digger
that nested in burrows.
Lystrosaurus was by far the most common terrestrial vertebrate of the Early Triassic, accounting
for as many as 95% of the total individuals in some fossil beds.[citation needed] It has often been
suggested that it had anatomical features that enabled it to adapt better than most animals to the
atmospheric conditions that were created by the PermianTriassic extinction event and which
persisted through the Early Triassiclow concentrations of oxygen and high concentrations of
carbon dioxide.[citation needed] However, recent research suggests that these features were no more
pronounced in Lystrosaurus than in genera that perished in the extinction or in genera that
survived but were much less abundant than Lystrosaurus.[citation needed]

Contents

1 Description

2 Distribution and species

o 2.1 Species found in Africa
o 2.2 Other species

3 History
o 3.1 Plate tectonics

4 Paleoecology
o 4.1 Dominance of the Early Triassic

5 In popular culture

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

Description

Size of Lystrosaurus murrayi relative to a human.

Lystrosaurus was a dicynodont therapsid, between 0.6 to 2.5 m (2.0 to 8.2 ft) long and weighing
about 5 to 200 kg (11 to 441 lb) depending upon the species.[3]
Unlike other therapsids, dicynodonts had very short snouts and no teeth except for the tusk-like
upper canines. Dicynodonts are generally thought to have had horny beaks like those of turtles,
for shearing off pieces of vegetation which were then ground on a horny secondary palate when
the mouth was closed. The jaw joint was weak and moved backwards and forwards with a
shearing action, instead of the more common sideways or up and down movements. It is thought
that the jaw muscles were attached unusually far forward on the skull and took up a lot of space
on the top and back of the skull. As a result the eyes were set high and well forward on the skull,
and the face was short.[4]
Features of the skeleton indicate that Lystrosaurus moved with a semi-sprawling gait. The lower
rear corner of the scapula (shoulder blade) was strongly ossified (built of strong bone), which
suggests that movement of the scapula contributed to the stride length of the forelimbs and
reduced the sideways flexing of the body.[5] The five sacral vertebrae were massive but not fused
to each other and to the pelvis, making the back more rigid and reducing sideways flexing while
the animal was walking. Therapsids with fewer than five sacral vertebrae are thought to have had
sprawling limbs, like those of modern lizards.[5] In dinosaurs and mammals, which have erect
limbs, the sacral vertebrae are fused to each other and to the pelvis.[6] A buttress above each
acetabulum (hip socket) is thought to have prevented dislocation of the femur (thigh bone) while
Lystrosaurus was walking with a semi-sprawling gait.[5] The forelimbs of Lystrosaurus were
massive,[5] and Lystrosaurus is thought to have been a powerful burrower.[7]

Distribution and species

Lystrosaurus fossils have been found in many Late Permian and Early Triassic terrestrial bone
beds, most abundantly in Africa, and to a lesser extent in parts of what are now India, China,
Mongolia, European Russia, and Antarctica (which was not over the South Pole at the time).[5]

Species found in Africa

Lystrosaurus murrayi
Most Lystrosaurus fossils have been found in the Balfour and Katberg Formations of the Karoo
basin in South Africa; these specimens offer the best prospects of identifying species because
they are the most numerous and have been studied for the longest time. As so often with fossils,
there is debate in the paleontological community as to exactly how many species have been
found in the Karoo.[7] Studies from the 1930s to 1970s suggested a large number (23 in one case).
[7]
However, by the 1980s and 1990s, only six species were recognized in the Karoo: L. curvatus,
L. platyceps, L. oviceps, L. maccaigi, L. murrayi, and L. declivis. A study in 2011 reduced that
number to four, treating the fossils previously labeled as L. platyceps and L. oviceps as members
of L. curvatus.[8]
L. maccaigi is the largest and apparently most specialized species, while L. curvatus was the
least specialized. A Lystrosaurus-like fossil, Kwazulusaurus shakai, has also been found in South
Africa. Although not assigned to the same genus, K. shakai is very similar to L. curvatus. Some
paleontologists have therefore proposed that K. shakai was possibly an ancestor of or closely
related to the ancestors of L. curvatus, while L. maccaigi arose from a different lineage.[7] L.
maccaigi is found only in sediments from the Permian period, and apparently did not survive the
PermianTriassic extinction event. Its specialized features and sudden appearance in the fossil
record without an obvious ancestor may indicate that it immigrated into the Karoo from an area
in which Late Permian sediments have not been found.[7]
L. curvatus is found in a relatively narrow band of sediments from shortly before and after the
extinction, and can be used as an approximate marker for the boundary between the Permian and
Triassic periods. A skull identified as L. curvatus has been found in late Permian sediments from
Zambia. For many years it had been thought that there were no Permian specimens of L.
curvatus in the Karoo, which led to suggestions that L. curvatus immigrated from Zambia into
the Karoo. However, a re-examination of Permian specimens in the Karoo has identified some as
L. curvatus, and there is no need to assume immigration.[7]
L. murrayi and L. declivis are found only in Triassic sediments.[7]

Lystrosaurus georgi

Other species
Lystrosaurus georgi fossils have been found in the Earliest Triassic sediments of the Moscow
Basin in Russia. It was probably closely related to the African Lystrosaurus curvatus,[5] which is
regarded as one of the least specialized species and has been found in very Late Permian and
very Early Triassic sediments.[7]

History

Geographical distribution of Lystrosaurus (

) and contemporary fossils in Gondwana.

Dr. Elias Root Beadle, a Philadelphia missionary and avid fossil collector, discovered the first
Lystrosaurus skull. Beadle wrote to the eminent paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, but
received no reply. Marsh's rival, Edward Drinker Cope, was very interested in seeing the find,
and described and named Lystrosaurus in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
in 1870.[9] Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek words listron "shovel" and sauros "lizard".
[10]
Marsh belatedly purchased the skull in May 1871, although his interest in an alreadydescribed specimen was unclear; he may have wanted to carefully scrutinize Cope's description
and illustration.[9]

Plate tectonics
The discovery of Lystrosaurus fossils at Coalsack Bluff in the Transantarctic Mountains by
Edwin H. Colbert and his team in 196970 helped confirm the theory of plate tectonics and
convince the last of the doubters, since Lystrosaurus had already been found in the lower Triassic
of southern Africa as well as in India and China.[11]

Paleoecology
Dominance of the Early Triassic
Lystrosaurus is notable for dominating southern Pangaea during the Early Triassic for millions of
years. At least one unidentified species of this genus survived the end-Permian mass extinction
and, in the absence of predators and of herbivorous competitors, went on to thrive and re-radiate
into a number of species within the genus,[12] becoming the most common group of terrestrial
vertebrates during the Early Triassic; for a while 95% of land vertebrates were Lystrosaurus.[12][13]

This is the only time that a single species or genus of land animal dominated the Earth to such a
degree.[14] A few other Permian therapsid genera also survived the mass extinction and appear in
Triassic rocksthe therocephalians Tetracynodon, Moschorhinus and Ictidosuchoidesbut do
not appear to have been abundant in the Triassic;[7] complete ecological recovery took 30 million
years, spanning the Early and Middle Triassic.[15]
Several attempts have been made to explain why Lystrosaurus survived the PermianTriassic
extinction event, the "mother of all mass extinctions",[16] and why it dominated Early Triassic
fauna to such an unprecedented extent:

Lystrosaurus murrayi

One of the more recent theories is that the PermianTriassic extinction event reduced the
atmosphere's oxygen content and increased its carbon dioxide content, so that many
terrestrial species died out because they found breathing too difficult.[13] It has therefore
been suggested that Lystrosaurus survived and became dominant because its burrowing
life-style made it able to cope with an atmosphere of "stale air", and that specific features
of its anatomy were part of this adaptation: a barrel chest that accommodated large lungs,
short internal nostrils that facilitated rapid breathing, and high neural spines (projections
on the dorsal side of the vertebrae) that gave greater leverage to the muscles that
expanded and contracted its chest. However, there are weaknesses in all these points: the
chest of Lystrosaurus was not significantly larger in proportion to its size than in other
dicynodonts that became extinct; although Triassic dicynodonts appear to have had
longer neural spines than their Permian counterparts, this feature may be related to
posture, locomotion or even body size rather than respiratory efficiency; L. murrayi and
L. declivis are much more abundant than other Early Triassic burrowers such as
Procolophon or Thrinaxodon.[7]

Lystrosaurus skeletal diagram

The suggestion that Lystrosaurus was helped to survive and dominate by being semiaquatic has a similar weakness: although amphibians become more abundant in the
Karoo's Triassic sediments, they were much less numerous than L. murrayi and L.
declivis.[7]

The most specialized and the largest animals are at higher risk in mass extinctions; this
may explain why the unspecialized L. curvatus survived while the larger and more
specialized L. maccaigi perished along with all the other large Permian herbivores and
carnivores.[7] Although Lystrosaurus generally looks adapted to feed on plants similar to
Dicroidium, which dominated the Early Triassic, the larger size of L. maccaigi may have
forced it to rely on the larger members of the Glossopteris flora, which did not survive
the end-Permian extinction.[7]

Only the 1.5 metres (4.9 ft)long therocephalian Moschorhinus and the large
archosauriform Proterosuchus appear large enough to have preyed on the Triassic
Lystrosaurus species, and this shortage of predators may have been responsible for a
Lystrosaurus population boom in the Early Triassic.[7]

Perhaps the survival of Lystrosaurus was simply a matter of luck.[12]

In popular culture

Fossil specimen, Staatliches Museum fr Naturkunde Stuttgart

BBC 2002 documentary The Day The Earth Nearly Died, a program which discuss the
Permian extinction. In the program, the narrator says that Lystrosaurus was the only
therapsid to survive the extinction, and that it was the ancestor to all mammals, even
humans. This is not correct, as paleontologists do not regard dicynodonta as ancestral to
mammals.

Impossible Pictures production Walking with Monsters. Here, it was shown evolving from
the little dicynodont Diictodon, even though both species lived at the same time though
this may be a Triassic species of Lystrosaurus as most species died out in the Permian
extinction. The program shows evolution of other creatures of the same time period.

Animal Armageddon, 5th episode, "explaining" that the different Lystrosaurus species
had interbred with each other to adapt better and to survive during the transition from
Permian to Triassic.

Lystrosaurus appeared in the Rite of Spring segment in the 1940 animated film Fantasia,
where it is shown to dig out clams along with the Plateosaurus and it was one of the
animals led by the Stegosaurus.

See also
Paleontology portal

Evolution of mammals

List of synapsids

References
1.
The Paleobiology Database
http://bcrc.bio.umass.edu/courses/fall2007/biol/biol270h/3-Discussions/12Mass_Extinctions/12b-Permo-Triassic/12b-4_P-T_Synapsid_Extinction.pdf
"Lystrosaurus". Prehistoric Wildlife. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Cowen, R. (2000). The History of Life (3rd ed.). Blackwell Scientific. pp. 16768.
ISBN 0-632-04444-6.
Surkov, M.V., Kalandadze, N.N., and Benton, M.J. (June 2005). "Lystrosaurus georgi, a
dicynodont from the Lower Triassic of Russia" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25 (2):
402413. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0402:LGADFT]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634.
Benton, Michael J. (2004). "Origin and relationships of Dinosauria". In Weishampel,
David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmlska, Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley:
University of California Press. pp. 719. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
Botha, J., and Smith, R.M.H. (2005). "Lystrosaurus species composition across the
PermoTriassic boundary in the Karoo Basin of South Africa". Lethaia 40 (2): 125137.
doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.2007.00011.x. Full version online at "Lystrosaurus species composition
across the PermoTriassic boundary in the Karoo Basin of South Africa" (PDF). Retrieved 200807-02.
Grine, F.E., Forster, C.A., Cluver, M.A. & Georgi, J.A. (2006). "Amniote paleobiology.
Perspectives on the Evolution of Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles,". University of Chicago Press.
pp. 432503. |chapter= ignored (help)
Wallace, David Rains (2000). The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the
Greatest Scientific Feud of the Gilded Age. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 4445. ISBN 0-61808240-9.
Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott (1980). A Greek-English Lexicon (Abridged
Edition). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-910207-4.
Naomi Lubick, Investigating the Antarctic, Geotimes, 2005.
Michael J. Benton (2006). When Life Nearly Died. The Greatest Mass Extinction of All
Time. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28573-X.
The Consolations of Extinction: includes section on Lystrosaurus and end-Permian
extinction
BBC: Life Before Dinosaurs

 Sahney, S. and Benton, M.J. (2008). "Recovery from the most profound mass extinction
of all time" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological 275 (1636): 75965.
doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1370. PMC 2596898. PMID 18198148.
1.

Erwin DH (1993). The great Paleozoic crisis; Life and death in the Permian.
Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-07467-0.

External links

Palaeos.com: Dicynodontia

Hugh Rance, The Present is the Key to the Past: "Mammal-like reptiles of Pangea"

[hide]

Anomodonts

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Synapsida

Order: Therapsida

(unranked): Neotherapsida

[hide]

Major clades

Chainosauria

Dicynodontia

Therochelonia

Bidentalia

Pristerodontia

Dicynodontoidea

[show]

Early anomodonts
[show]

Dicynodontia
[hide]

Dicynodontoidea

Lystrosauridae

Other dicynodontoids

[show]

Kannemeyeriiformes
[hide]

Related categories

Anomodonts

Dicynodonts

Categories:

Dicynodonts

Triassic synapsids

Prehistoric synapsids of Asia

Prehistoric synapsids of Africa

Extinct animals of Antarctica

Navigation menu

Create account

Log in

Article

Talk

Read

Edit

View history

Main page

Contents

Featured content

Current events

Random article

Donate to Wikipedia

Wikipedia store

Interaction

Help

About Wikipedia

Community portal

Recent changes

Contact page

Tools

What links here

Related changes

Upload file

Special pages

Permanent link

Page information

Wikidata item

Cite this page

Print/export

Create a book

Download as PDF

Printable version

Languages

Brezhoneg

Catal

etina

Deutsch

Espaol

Franais

Italiano

Lietuvi

Magyar

Nederlands

Polski

Portugus

Slovenina

/ srpski

Srpskohrvatski /

Svenska

Ting Vit

Edit links

This page was last modified on 25 June 2015, at 10:04.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional

terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.

Privacy policy

About Wikipedia

Disclaimers

Contact Wikipedia

Developers

Mobile view