Anthodon
Name: Anthodon
(Flower tooth).
Phonetic: An-foe-don.
Named By: Richard Owen - 1876.
Synonyms: Propappus parvus, Pareiasaurus
parvus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Procolophonomorpha, Procolophonia, Pareiasauridae.
Species: A. serrarius
(type), A. gregoryi, A. minisculus, A. rossicus.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: 1.2 to 1.5 meters long.
Known locations: South Africa and Tanzania,
possibly also Russia.
Time period: Permian.
Fossil representation: Several specimens.
Anthodon
was a fairly small pareiasaur that may have had a particularly broad
geographic distribution. As with its pareiasaur relatives, Anthodon
would have been a quadrupedal herbivore, and in addition to this,
Anthodon seems to have had a covering of scutes
across its body for
armour.
When
first described, Anthodon was believed to have
been a dinosaur
because dinosaur fossils had become mixed up with the Anthodon
holotype
specimen. Robert Broom removed the dinosaur fossils from the genus
in 1912, and later in 1929 Franz Nopcsa identified them as
those of a stegosaurid
dinosaur, and so created the genus Paranthodon
for them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
|