Ischigualastia
| Ischigualastia Temporal range: Carnian
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| Mounted skeleton of Ischigualastia jenseni | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | †Anomodontia |
| Clade: | †Dicynodontia |
| Family: | †Stahleckeriidae |
| Subfamily: | †Stahleckeriinae |
| Genus: | †Ischigualastia Cox 1962 |
| Type species | |
| †Ischigualastia jenseni Cox, 1962
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Ischigualastia is an extinct genus of large dicynodont therapsids that lived during the Carnian age of the Late Triassic Period. The genus was found in and named after the Ischigualasto Formation (Cancha de Bochas Member) of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in northwestern Argentina. It has been placed in the family Stahleckeriidae.[1]
Description[]
The genus is described as an enormous dicynodont, with a short, high skull, and lacking tusks.[2] It is regarded as larger than its later, more famous relative Placerias, which weighed over 1 tonne (1,000 kg).
Paleoecology[]
It was a large quadrupedal herbivore, most common at the base of the Ischigualasto Formation. It was a common member of the local fauna, although not as abundant as the medium-sized herbivores Hyperodapedon and Exaeretodon. The only danger to such a huge animal was the almost equally large carnivorous pseudosuchian Saurosuchus and perhaps the predatory dinosaur Herrerasaurus, which shared the same environment. It is likely that pressure from this predator pushed Ischigualastia into extinction, for it becomes less common and finally disappears in the higher levels of the Ischigualasto Formation. A somewhat smaller relative or descendant, Placerias, survived in Laurasia.[2]
Gallery[]
Life restoration of I. jenseni
Size of I. jenseni relative to a human
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Carroll, Robert L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-1822-7.
- ^ a b Kazlev, M.A., White, A.T. (2004-02-01). "Therapsida: Neotherapsida: Dicynodontia". Palaeos. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
External links[]
Media related to Ischigualastia at Wikimedia Commons
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- Dicynodonts
- Carnian genera
- Late Triassic synapsids of South America
- Triassic Argentina
- Fossils of Argentina
- Ischigualasto Formation
- Fossil taxa described in 1962
- Quechuan languages
- Anomodont genera
- Anomodont stubs