Moschorhinus
Name:
Moschorhinus
(Calf nose).
Phonetic: Moss-ko-ry-nus.
Named By: Robert Broom - 1920.
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Therapsida, Therocephalia, Akidnognathidae.
Species: M. kitchingi
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull size for specimens in the Permian up to
about 20.7 centimetres. Skull size of specimens in the early
Triassic up to about 17.9 centimetres long.
Known locations: South Africa - Katberg
Formation, Normandien Formation.
Time period: Induan of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of a few
individuals.
Moschorhinus
is an interesting genus of therocephalian therapsid as the genus
developed cranial features that were very similar to gorgonopsid
therapsids,
even though it was not a direct relative of them. Like
the gorgonopsids, Moschorhinus was a key predator
of the time,
hunting medium to large herbivorous animals. The main killing
weapons used by Moschorhinus would have been the
two enlarged canine
teeth in the upper jaw that pointed down similar to the sabre-teeth of
sabre-toothed cats some two hundred and fifty million years later.
Moschorhinus
fossils are so far known from the end of the Permian and the early
Triassic, showing us that the Moschorhinus genus
lived through the
Permian/Triassic Extinction event, the most devastating extinction
event to ever hit the planet. However while we know that as a genus
Moschorhinus survived this event, we also know
that the genus had to
adapt to do so. We know this because the skulls of Moschorhinus
that lived after the extinction event are approximately 14% smaller
than Moschorhinus that lived in the Permian before
the extinction
event. This tells us that with reduced numbers of plant eating
animals to hunt, Moschorhinus grew smaller so
that it would not have
to eat so much in order to survive. This reducing in size is what
naturalists refer to as the ‘lilliput effect’.
Further reading
- On Some New Therocephalian Reptiles from the Karroo Beds of South
Africa. - Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 351–354. -
R. Broom - 1920.
- A revised descripction of the skull of Moschorhinus
(therapsida,
therocephalia). - Annals of the South African Museum. 99: 381–413. - J.
F. Durand - 1991.
- Body size and growth patterns in the therocephalian Moschorhinus
kitchingi (Therapsida: Eutheriodontia) before and after
the
end-Permian extinction in South Africa. - Paleobiology - Adam
K. Huttenlocker & Jennifer Botha-Brink - 2013.
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