This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
The entire Age of Reptiles was filled with fantastic creatures, including our favorite dinosaurs, but the Triassic really sets itself apart for unabashed oddities. Ten million years into the period - quite a stretch in absolute terms but just a relative blip in Deep Time - evolution had spun off the first lanky dinosaurs, marine reptiles with faces like vacuum cleaners, and other creatures that were like nothing that had come before. Now paleontologists have added Shringasaurus indicus to the mix, an unexpected herbivore that took the fossil fandom by surprise.
Shringasaurus, paleontologist Saradee Sengupta and colleagues report, was not a dinosaur. This reptile from ancient India belonged to a different and little-known group called azendohsaurids that, nevertheless, sometimes appear quite dinosaur-like. In particular, the horns of the 247 million-year-old Shringasaurus recall those of the great horned dinosaurs, albeit presaging them by over 100 million years.
Apart from the horns, though, Shringasaurus bears no real resemblance to the ceratopsids. This Triassic herbivore had a relatively long neck on a thick, low-slung body, reconstructed with the rear legs straight and the forelimbs bent out. As was pointed out to me on Twitter, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the poor iguanas that had horns glued to their faces for the 1960 Lost World remake.
By itself, Shringasaurus is yet another Mesozoic weirdo. But placed in the wider context of the Triassic menagerie, this shuffling reptile underscores the resiliency of life on Earth. Shringasaurus, Sengupta and colleagues point out, was part of a great reptilian diversification that occurred after the end-Permian extinction 252 million years ago largely cleared the terrestrial slate. Shringasaurus, in other words, was part of life's wildly experimental phase as extinction survivors proliferated and made a whole new world. Shringasaurus isn't just strange, then, but a sign of life's success.
Reconstruction and selected bones of Shringasaurus. Credit: Sengupta et al 2017
Fossil Facts
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Name: Shringasaurus indicus
Meaning: Shringasaurus means "horned lizard", while indicus refers to the country where the bones were found.
Age: Triassic, around 247 million years old.
Where in the world?: Madhya Pradesh, India.
What sort of organism?: A reptile known as an azendohsaurid.
How much of the organism’s is known?: Parts of at least seven individuals found in a single bonebed.
Reference:
Sengupta, S., Ezcurra, M., Bandyopadhyay, S. 2017. A new horned and long-necked herbivorous stem-archosaur from the Middle Triassic of India. Scientific Reports. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08658-8
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