Day: August 22, 2020

Dinosaurs – Dimorphodon

Gokul

About Dimorphodon

Dimorphodon is a pterosaur which lived approximately 175 million to 160 million years ago – from the Middle Jurassic Period through the Late Jurassic Period. It was first discovered during the 19th century and was named by Richard Owen in 1859. Its name means “two-formed tooth.” It was given this name because it had two different types of teeth in its jaws. The front teeth looked like they were designed to grab prey and its back ones look like it was used to grind things up.

If you look closely at Dimorphodon pictures, then you might be quick to come to the conclusion that someone drew this animal wrong. After all, it does have that look like it was a model that somebody put together wrong – that somehow it large head was placed on its slender body by mistake. However, I assure you that is how this flying reptile actually looked.

Dimorphodon was approximately 2 feet long, weighed around 2 pounds and had a wingspan of about 4 feet. That made it about the size of a modern-day American Crow. However, it was probably a whole lot scarier than today’s crows because it did have that head that was filled with razor-sharp teeth. Teeth that could have been used to eat fish but may have also been used to eat insects as well. Paleontologists are quite sure at the moment.

One of the most interesting facts about Dimorphodon is that it had a long tail with a flap of skin at the end that was shaped like a diamond. Paleontologists believe that this was used to stabilize it during flight – much in the same way a tail is used to stabilize a kite. Which probably means that this pterosaur soared instead of actually flying, although it may have done a combination of both depending on the situation.

 

Dinosaurs – Scutosaurus

Gokul

About Scutosaurus
Scutosaurus was an anapsid reptile which lived approximately 250 million years ago during the Late Permian Period. It was first discovered during the 1920s in Russia and was named by Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitskii in 1922. Its name means “shield lizard” in Greek.

As you can probably tell from Scutosaurus pictures, this para-reptile was a massive creature. It was approximately 6 feet long – or about as long as a human male is long and weighed around 1,000 pounds – or a little more than what a horse weighs. It had thick bones and was also heavy muscled, which made it pretty strong. It was also covered in armor plates that would have given it some kind of defense against creatures which may have tried to have eaten it. Which it would’ve needed considering that it was probably pretty slow.

However, one of the most interesting facts about Scutosaurus isn’t its enormous size or its armor plating. No, what is interesting is that it probably wandered the flood plains of Eurasia like buffalo did on the plains of North America, hundreds of millions of years later. Paleontologists believe these huge herds of Scutosaurus would bellow to each other – much in the way cows do today. This has been substantiated by this creature’s huge cheeks which would have acted as bellows to allow them to communicate with each other.

Traveling in packs would have given this armored animal yet another form of defense. Herds provide animals a better chance of surviving a predator attack. Usually, when a predator attacks a herd it picks out the slowest or weakest of the herd. This allows the rest of the herd to escape. One of the predators which may have tried to attack Scutosaurus was Inostrancevia – a therapsid which had huge saber-tooth like teeth.

Scutosaurus lived on a diet of the dry vegetation which existed during this time and it had teeth that could get the job done. Its big, flat teeth could grind down plant matter so it could be further processed in its enormous gut. Most likely, this grazing anapsid reptile would have had to have eaten a whole lot of plants and grasses to maintain its enormous weight.