Ulemosaurus

Ulemosaurus is an extinct genus of dinocephalian therapsids that lived 265 to 260 million years ago, at Isheevo in Russian Tatarstan. It was a tapinocephalid, a group of bulky herbivores which flourished in the Middle Permian. Ulemosaurus and other tapinocephalians disappeared at the end of the Mid-Permian.

Ulemosaurus
Temporal range: Capitanian, 265–260 Ma
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Digital painting of Ulemosaurus svijagensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Therapsida
Suborder: †Dinocephalia
Family: †Tapinocephalidae
Subfamily: †Tapinocephalinae
Tribe: †Tapinocephalini
Subtribe: †Moschopina
Genus: †Ulemosaurus
Rjabinin, 1938
Type species
Ulemosaurus svijagensis
Riabinin, 1938
Species
  • †U. svijagensis Riabinin, 1938
  • †U. gigas (Efremov 1954)
[1]

Description

Only several partial skeletons and skulls have been found. The skull bones are extremely dense: about 10 centimetres (4 in) at its thickest. This thickening is possibly related to head-butting behavior, as some researchers suggest. The species is considered a herbivore, but because the mandible is heavily constructed some palaeontologists consider it a carnivore, with the species being able to use muscle power to cut prey up with its incisors.

Classification

Ulemosaurus is a large Moschops-like form from Russia; it is probably similar enough to be included as a separate species of Moschops. Despite its advanced characteristics, it lived slightly before the Karoo forms, showing that the Moschopines, and indeed the Tapinocephalidae in general, had already attained their acme by early Capitanian time.

See also

References
  1. "†Ulemosaurus gigas Efremov 1954". PBDB.

Further reading
  • Vickers-Rich, Patricia; Rich, Thomas H. (1993). The Great Russian Dinosaurs. Clayton: Monash Science Centre. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7326-0503-2.
  • Riabinin, A. N., 1938. Vertebrate fauna from the Upper Permian deposits of the Sviaga basin: 1. A new Dinocephalian, Ulemosaurus sviagensi n. gen. n. sp: Ezheg. Muz. Akad. F. N. Chernysheva, v. 1, p. 4–40.
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