Trilophosaurus

Skull of Trilophosaurus

• Western North America

Trilophosaurus was a two to three meter long diapsides reptile that lived in the Triassic in western North America. Characteristic of the animal is its small but massively built 10 to 15 -centimeter-long skull, lacking the lower cranial window. The upward-facing upper skull windows were close together and are separated by a high bone crest. Trilophosaurus had a toothless premaxilla, the opposite tip of the lower jaw was also toothless. Probably both jaw ends were provided with a horned beak. The molars were transversely widened to longitudinal body axis and provided with sharp shearing surfaces. The structure of the skull was probably to give the purpose powerful jaw adductor maintenance; an adaptation to harsh plant food.

The rest of the skeleton of Trilophosaurus corresponded with the provided with long transverse processes of vertebrae and the shape of the ilium ( ilium ) in the basin largely that of the other primitive Archosaurierverwandten. With a few other, much less well-studied genera, Trilophosaurus forms the family Trilophosauridae.