#proterosuchus

[skyradiant]

20th anniversary of Walking With Monsters: Life Before Dinosaurs. The series premiered November 5th, 2005.

[justgoji]

Ancient rivals Proterosuchus and Lystrosaurus plus Lotosaurus for croctober!

[antiqueanimals]

The World of Dinosaurs. Written by L. B. Halstead. 1979.

Internet Archive

[neovenatorgirlteeth]

DINOVEMBER DAY 9: 250MYA, ONELEKIAN STAGE; TRANSANTARCTIC MOUNTAINS, ANTARCTICA

The aftermath of The Great Dying has been severe, and the world of the Triassic is shaping itself to be very different to the Permian. The once dominant synapsids have been whittled down to two small groups; a group of anomodonts called the dicynodonts, like this Lystrosaurus, and a group of theriodonts called the cynodonts; our own dog-like ancestors. All life has suffered, apart from slimy sulphur-eating algae that in normal conditions would be restricted to volcanic pools. Temperatures are still high, the deserts are still vast and inhospitable, and Pangea continues to fracture. Only the coasts are habitable, and the tropicals are ravaged by seasonal supermonsoons generated from the air currents created by the one sea that stretches from pole to pole. These conditions will persist for the rest of the Triassic, shaping the world and it's inhabitants.

Lystrosaurus is an unlikely looking survivor, but for a while this strange piglike animal was the most common vertebrate on land. It's favoured habitat, coastal lowland marshes, was relatively untouched by the extinction, and it's lifestyle of choice, wading through the wetlands like a hippo, using it's tusks to dig for roots, and burrowing for shelter has helped them weather the storm. However, this cannot save them from the revolution to come.

Whilst crossing a channel of deeper water, this Lystrosaurus has encountered one of the numerous reptilian predators of the Triassic; a hook-nosed Proterosuchus, equally at home on land and in the water. Her serrated teeth sink into the the neck of the Lystrosaurus as her jaws clamp down on her, ready to drag her beneath the surface. The Lystrosaurus gasps as her lungs fill with a mix muddy water and her own blood. Reptiles are quickly rising to fill the power vacuum left by the synapsids, and the largest reptilian predators like the big-headed Erythrosuchus are already as big as the largest synapsid predators of the Permian. This is one of the most dangerous and unstable times in the earth's history, and the animals of the Triassic must be as fierce as the threats that they face. Welcome to the age of reptiles.

[confusedhadrosaur]

Day 14:  Proterosuchus fergusi

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 14 - Proterosuchus fergusi

While a rather goofy-looking animal, Proterosuchus is a representative from a group of Early Triassic archosauriforms which represent the earliest adaptive radiation of the Archosaurs. After the Permian catastrophe which killed off 95% of all life, it was the proterosuchids who became the top predators, filling a wide-variety of terrestrial and semi-aquatic niches, and gave rise to the Erythrosuchids of the Middle Triassic.

Proterosuchus fergusi lived in what is now South Africa. It was 3.5 meters (11 ft) long, had a sprawling stance similar to a lizard (which I did not depict very well here rip), a proportionally large head and long neck compared to its body, and a hooked snout distinctive to basal archosauriforms. Traditionally, it was assumed Proterosuchus was a semi-aquatic ambush predator with a lifestyle similar to crocodilians. However, it lived in an arid environment and didn’t seem adapted for aquaticism, having well-ossified limbs and laterally-positioned nostrils. So its diet is unknown: it could have eaten fish, it could have eaten the contemporary Lystrosaurus (which also survived the Permian extinction and was the dominant land animal at the time), it could have eaten both! As for it’s silly-looking snout, the purpose ot that is not known either. It could have been used in sexual or social signaling, or perhaps to keep prey from escaping its jaws.

As for what we do know, Proterosuchus had eyes that could see in both bright and dim light, indicating a cathemeral or crepuscular lifestyle. As it lived near the Antarctic Circle, this could also have been an adaptation to the seasonal changes in day length. Its hearing was adapted for lower frequencies, indicating little, if any, reliance on vocal communication. However, it did have large olfactory bulbs, indicating a strong sense of smell.

[aldarquen]

Random fandom crossovers Part 2: Wednesday & Walking with Monsters I like to think I'm the 1% of Wednesday fans that thought of WWM during the Poe Cup race...

[roygattero]

Proterosuchus fergusi