Describing a New Cryptodont Dicynodont from the Permian of
Tanzania 2013 REU Project: Dicynodonts are an extinct group of
ancient mammal relatives, and during the Permian and Triassic
periods of Earth history they were the most diverse and abundant
terrestrial vertebrate herbivores. The best fossil record of
Permian dicynodonts comes from the Karoo Basin of South Africa,
but recently I have conducted fieldwork with collaborators in
the Permian rocks preserved in the Ruhuhu Basin of southwestern
Tanzania. Research methods and techniques: We will describe a
new species of dicynodont from the Permian of Tanzania. The
species is represented by the skull, jaw, and partial
postcranial skeleton of a subadult individual, and a skull
fragment of a second larger individual. We will describe the
morphology of the specimen, compare it to other dicynodonts to
firmly establish that it is a distinct species, discuss the
reasons why the primary specimen seems to be a subadult, examine
how it is related to other dicynodonts,