Ulemosaurus
Name:
Ulemosaurus
(Ulema river lizard).
Phonetic: Oo-lay-moe-sore-us.
Named By: Rjabinin - 1938.
Synonyms: Moschops svijagensis.
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Therapsida, Dinocephalia, Tapinocephalia, Tapinocephalidae.
Species: U. svijagensis
(type), S. gigas.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: 3 meters long, Skull 30 centimetres
long.
Known locations: Tartarstan.
Time period: Mid Permian.
Fossil representation: Skulls and partial post
cranial remains of several individuals.
Ulemosaurus
is very much like the therapsid
Moschops,
not only in the type of
creature that it was, but also in the fact that its skull was also up
to ten centimetres thick. Its possible that like in the related
Moschops, this bone thickness allowed for head
butting or head
pushing contests.
Although
usually depicted as a herbivore, Ulemosaurus is
considered by some to
be a potential carnivore. This new interpretation has also been
applied to other therapsids that were traditionally considered
herbivorous such as Estemmenosuchus
and Jonkeria,
as is based upon
the principal that the teeth are more like those you would find in a
carnivorous animal. Counter to this argument however is the overall
body shape which is large and bulky, more suited to housing a large
digestive system that would be required to process harder to digest
plant matter. The front legs also sprawl out to the sides, and
while this is often interpreted as allowing for easier turning, it
would also allow Ulemosaurus to lower its head
closer to the ground for
feeding on low level plants.
It
is not completely out of the question however that Ulemosaurus
supplemented its diet by either catching small animals as it browsed to
scavenging the leftover kills of predators. If correct then this
would make Ulemosaurus, and possibly other
theraspids,
opportunistic omnivores rather than specialists.
Further reading
- Vertebrate fauna from the Upper Permian deposits of the Sviaga basin:
1. A new - Dinocephalian, Ulemosaurus sviagensi n. gen. n. sp. - A. N.
Riabinin - 1938.
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