The Tatarian Dynasty of the Late Permian
From the Dinosaur Collector
In the Tatarian, the terminal Permian, the climate conditions continue to get worse that by the end life may only have been possible at low attitudes. The extinction at the end of the Kazanian replaced the Dinocephalian fauna in South Africa by new groups of big herbivores - the beaked and toothless dicynodonts. These were clearly descended from animals which were common but restricted to small body sizes earlier. The smaller pig and sheep sized dicynodonts a the most common herbivores in this period and into the following Triassic. At the end of the Permian is the greatest extinction of all time, 95% of land and sea species die out. There may have been an impact towards the end of the period. The balance of evidence points to an environmental disaster tied to increased carbon caused by the eruption of volcanoes in Siberia. Intense heat, the spread of deserts with irregular climate and low oxygen rates make for a nasty time. The final act was the rise in temperature of the oceans that killed off most of the sea life. updated 06/01/07
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One family dominates the top predator role, the
gorgonopsians. Gorogonopsids were lightly built meat eaters with long
running legs, and were a dominant predators that may have hunted in packs.
Lycaenops ('Wolf face) a gorogonopsid had two prominent canine teeth. It seems like
Lycaenops and its relatives
were reptilian saber-toothed tigers of the Late Permian.
Hasbro's Jurassic Park Line Lycaenops. The tan original figure at the top center with the baby from the action figure blister card. Below is mutated Lycaenops with psychedelic colors.
Initial diversity of large dicynodonts may have been low, with one genus, Endothiodon, dominating some early local faunas. But within a relatively short period more big dicynodont families and four fully terrestrial big families become common, plus pareiasaurs, the big aquatic herbivores that were the only survivors over 15 kg from the Dinocephalian fauna. Most dicynodonts were characterized by a pair of tusks, Endothiodon was a large example of the tusk less variety. The tusked dicynodonts survived into the following Triassic period.
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Endothiodon by Starlux and Lycaenops by Ral Partha.
This a pretty rare period for figures with only Harbro visiting it recently.
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