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

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.

#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.