Mastodonsaurus

Mastodonsaurus

• Europe

• Mastodonsaurus durus
• Mastodonsaurus giganteus
• Mastodonsaurus lavisi

Mastodonsaurus is a genus temnospondyler amphibians from the middle to upper Triassic ( 247.2 to 201.3 mya ) of Europe. This genus is one of the largest of the Earth's amphibians, but was surpassed by Prionosuchus.

Description

Mastodonsaurus reached a length of more than five meters. The skull was from the top ( dorsal) considered relatively large triangular and 1.40 meters in length. In contrast, the tail was very short. Mastodonsaurus was built extremely massive, under his skin were a lot of small plates of bone, and he could therefore have weighed one and a half tons. He had five toes on each foot, which may have been connected with webbed, and rather short and stocky legs, which were not suitable for a long stay in the countryside. At the tip of the instrument he had two teeth that protruded through the upper jaw.

Way of life

The biotope of Mastodonsaurus were probably the still waters of his time. Presumably, he was able to overcome the distance between different waters creeping. Mastodonsaurus chased other Temnospondylen, fish and archosaurs. Due to its size, an adult individual probably had no predators.

Naming

Often the name Mastodonsaurus is wrongly translated as " Mastodon lizard" in popular scientific literature, it being assumed that the reference to the mastodon is intended to highlight the enormous size of this animal. However Mastodonsaurus means " teat -tooth lizard" (Greek mastos - " breast, teat ", odon - "tooth", saura - "lizard "). The name was given by Georg Friedrich of hunters in 1828 - for a single tooth ( holotype ), which was found in Baden- Württemberg and showed a teat- like shape by hunter sensation: " This tooth is in fact particularly distinguished by its teat- like tip ( ... ) of the tooth ends in a domed top, but in the midst of a navel -like depression, and in the middle of it again has a small increase in " hunter did not recognize this is that the tooth was damaged in reality -. actually were the teeth of Mastodonsaurus tapered. Later hunters brought the tooth correctly with other, larger bones of the back of a skull in combination. Now he recognized similarities to today's salamanders, and described on the basis of these findings a new animal, which he called Salamandroides giganteus ( " giant salamander -like "). Since the name Mastodonsaurus but was awarded first, he has according to the international rules for Zoological Nomenclature priority (priority rule), which is why the name is invalid Salamandroides today.