Tetraceratops
Name:
Tetraceratops
(Four horned face).
Phonetic: Tet-rah-ceh-rah-tops.
Named By: Matthew - 1908.
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Classification between Class and Family is uncertain
Tetraceratopsidae.
Species: T. insignis (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull is 9 centimetres long. Total body
length unknown due to lack of fossil material.
Known locations: USA, Texas.
Time period: Sakmarian of the Permian.
Fossil representation: Single skull.
Tetraceratops
has proven a headache for palaeontologists since its discovery, as it
is either a pelycosaur, or potentially an early form of the coming
therapsids that would displace the pelycosaurs as dominant predators.
Evidence to support the therapsid theory comes from similarities in
the temporal fenestra between Tetraceratops and
biarmarosuchians,
primitive therapsids
that include Biarmosuchus.
Whatever
its phylogenetic lineage, Tetraceratops
acquired its name from the
four horns that adorn the top of its head. However, another pair of
horns actually protruded from the rear corners of its mandible (lower
jaw).
Study
of the area where the skull came from suggests that Tetraceratops
lived
in a drier, woodland environment. The smaller skull of
Tetraceratops compared to other pelycosaurs like
Ophiacodon
would
suggest an overall smaller body size. This may have allowed
Tetraceratops to hunt for smaller reptiles away from
the wetter swamp
environments that seem to have been populated by the larger predatory
pelycosaurs.
Further reading
- A four-horned pelycosaurian from the Permian of Texas. - Bulletin of
the American Museum of Natural History 24:183-185. - W. D. Matthew -
1908.
- The osteology and relationships of Tetraceratops insignis,
the oldest
known therapsid. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 16 (1): 95–102.
- M. laurin & R. R. Reisz - 1996.
- Re-evaluation of Tetraceratops insignis
(Synapsida: Sphenacodontia).
- Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21: 42A. - J. Conrad & C.
A. Sidor - 2001.
- The skull of Tetraceratops insignis (Synapsida,
Sphenacodontia). -
Palaeovertebrata. 43 (1): e1. - Frederik Spindler - 2020.
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