Lisowicia
Name: Lisowicia
(named after the Polish village of Lisowice where the first fossils
where found).
Phonetic: Lis-o-we-ce-ah.
Named By: Tomasz Sulej & Grzegorz
Niedźwiedzki - 2019.
Classification: Chordata, Therapsida,
Dicynodontia.
Species: L. bojani (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Largest known femur 80 centimetres long.
Holotype remains roughly estimated to be from an individual up to
4.5 meters long.
Known locations: Poland.
Time period: Late Norian/early Rhaetian of the
Triassic.
Fossil representation: Partial remains, including
skull bones, partial jaws, post cranial skeleton including partial
limbs, ribs and vertebrae.
When
fossils where first reported in 2008, it was clear that that these
were the bones of what would become one of the more noteworthy
dicynodonts.
Formally named over ten years later, Lisowicia
is by
far one of the largest, if not the largest dicynodonts that ever
lived. A second feature of note is that all four legs of Lisowicia
seem to support the body from underneath, quite different to the
majority of known dicynodonts where the front limbs especially splay
out to the sides.
Why
Lisowicia grew so large is a question with many
possible answers.
Lisowicia lived in the late Triassic period, many
millions of years
after the mass extinction that marks the end of the Permian period.
By this time the supercontinent of Pangea was breaking up, and
plants of all types were spreading all over, meaning that there was
more food than ever for herbivores. There was also fresh new
competition for these plants with rhynchosaurs
and herbivorous
cynodonts becoming common, and these were better suited to feeding
upon low growing plants. By growing larger, Lisowicia
could focus
more upon eating the larger vegetation that was out of reach of these
herbivores, though ultimately may have faced pressure from emerging
sauropodomorph
dinosaurs.
Another
factor to consider is the emergence of larger predators. Hunters such
as rausuchians,
archosaurs of various types and even primitive
dinosaurs were all active, and the excessive growth of Lisowicia
may
have meant that it was just too much trouble for most of these
predators to deal, at least when fully grown. However, most is
not necessarily all, and one archosaurian predator that lived in the
same location at the same approximate time as Lisowicia
is the five to
six meter long Smok
wawelski.
Further reading
- A Dicynodont-Theropod
Association in the Latest Triassic of Poland, Acta Palaeontologica
Polonica. 53 (4) - Jerzy Dzik, Tomasz Sulej &
Grzegorz
Niedźwiedzki - 2008.
- An elephant-sized Late Triassic
synapsid with erect limbs - Science. by Tomasz Sulej &
Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki - 2019.
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