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Lystrosaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid that lived during the Late Permian and Early Triassic periods, around 250 million years ago in what is now Antarctica, India and South Africa. At present 4 to 6 species are recognized, although from the 1930s to 1970s the number of species was thought to be much higher. Lystrosaurus had only two teeth, as with all other dicynodonts, as well as a pair of tusk-like canines. Lystrosaurus is thought to have had a horny beak that was used for biting off pieces of vegetation. Lystrosaurus was a heavily-built, herbivorous animal, approximately the size of a pig. The structure of its shoulders and hip joints suggest that Lystrosaurus moved with a semi-sprawling gait. Lystrosaurus was by far the most common terrestrial vertebrate of the Early Triassic, accounting for as many as 95% of the total individuals in some fossil beds. It has often been suggested that it had anatomical features that enabled it to adapt better than most animals to the atmospheric conditions that were created by the Permian–Triassic extinction event and which persisted through the Early Triassic — low concentrations of oxygen and high concentrations of carbon dioxide. However recent research suggests that these features were no more pronounced in Lystrosaurus than in genera that perished in the extinction or genera that survived but were much less abundant than Lystrosaurus. (Read more...)

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