#bunostegos

[daily-mspaint-paleoart]

23/08/2025 Bunostegos

[alphynix]

Bunostegos akokanensis, from the Late Permian of Niger (~260 mya). About 2.5m long (8′2″), similar in size to a modern cow, it was a member of a group known as the pareiasaurs -- stocky herbivorous reptile-relatives with osteoderm armor in their skin and knobbly bony nodules on their skulls.

The anatomy of its limb bones suggest it walked fully upright, with its legs held vertically under its body. This sort of posture has independently evolved multiple times in different tetrapod lineages, but Bunostegos is one of the earliest known examples.

[eartharchives]

Pre-reptile may be earliest known to walk upright on all fours

Wandering an arid region of the ancient supercontinent of Pangea about 260 million years ago, the pre-reptile Bunostegos akokanensis is the oldest known creature to have walked upright on all fours, according to a newly published study.

“Imagine a cow-sized, plant-eating reptile with a knobby skull and bony armor down its back.”

Image credit: Fabrizio De Rossi