Scutosaurus
Scutosaurus is one of the best known anapsid reptiles. It was one of the largest animals of the lineage of pareiasaurs, reaching sizes of up to 2.5 meters long and extremely bulky. These animals were the elephants of the Permian period and were the largest land animals ever until then. They needed to grow so large in order to support the very long digestive tract they needed to get any food value out of their rough vegetarian diet of ferns. While these animals have no living descendants, their tendency to larger size was a trend that would be repeated in the other later reptile groups.
Its name comes from the plates of bone that grew under the skin. These did not form a solid shield so the skin was still flexible though leathery. The presence of these bony plates and the rotund nature of this animal led researchers to suggest that it was closely related to the ancestors of today's turtles. Whether this is actually the case or not is still being debated. The head is also well armored with thick bone, knobs and bumps, and even a frill to protect the neck like that of the dinosaur Triceratops.It is likely that these animals lived in small herds or perhaps even larger herds. Several fossils were discovered together in northern Russia, leading to this suggestion. The body of Scutosaurus also hints at this. They were very bulky and so would have been slow moving. In this case, the protection offered by a herd would have been a distinct advantage given that there were many large predatory mammal-like reptiles roaming the land at the same time. It has been suggested that these animals were swamp dwellers, using the water to relieve the burden of their weight in the same way that the hippopotamus does today. However, one look at those powerful legs with large ridges on the bones for lots of muscle attachment tells us that this creature was more than able to support its own weight and so probably spent most if not all its time on dry land. To aid this, its legs were placed directly under the body rather than sprawled out to the sides as in earlier reptiles. In all, Scutosaurus was an advanced animal. Its large size, heavy armor with neck frill and legs positioned under the body are all significant advances over earlier anapsid reptiles. Why it died out at the end of the Permian and other species survived the mass extinction at that time will never be known. Return from Scutosaurus to Reptile Evolution or return to the ReptilesHome Page.
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