Page 123 - Prehistoric Animals

Skute-O-Sorus

Scutosaurus

Scutosaurus (shield lizard) is an extinct genus of pa-
reiasaur* parareptiles**. It roamed the planet in the late
Permian (Lopingian) about 264 and 252 million years ago.
It was a large pareiasaur, measuring about 2 to 3 metres in
length and weighing up to 1,160 kilograms.

Scutosaurus was a powerful and heavily built reptile.
It had a squat barrel shaped body. Under its skin its body
was covered with large plates of bony armour. Its tail was
small; too short to reach the ground. Its head was broad and
heavy with a thick snout-like mouth. Its teeth were typical
for an herbivore, sharp and longer cusp tipped teeth at the
front, for cutting and ripping vegetation, and short blunt
teeth at the back for chewing and grinding. It had short
muscular legs. However, they did not protrude from the side
of its body like most reptiles, but were directly under its
body, giving maximum support for its very heavy torso.

With its body mass and short legs Scutosaurus would
have been unable to move at speed for any length of time.
This would have made it vulnerable to attack from larger
and faster predators. To compensate for this vulnerability
many believe Scutosaurus would have browsed in a herd;
gaining security in numbers. To reinforce this idea it was
known Scutosaurus had extra-large cheek bones, a feature
found in animals that bellow or make loud noises. Scutosau-
rus could use this ‘bellow’ to warn the herd of danger, at-
tract a mate or to find other members of it species.

Since it was named by, Vladimir Prokhorovich Ama-
litskii in 1922, Scutosaurus has proven to be a bit of a mys-
tery. No possible ancestral link has been found to account
for its appearance in the late Permian. Likewise, there is
nothing to account for its sudden disappearance; where it
came from and where it went too, is simply one of those eco-
logical mysteries.

*Pareiasaurs (cheek lizards) (Wikipedia)
are an extinct clade of large, herbivorous parareptiles. Members of the group
were armoured with osteoderms which covered large areas of the body. They first ap-
peared in southern Pangea during the Middle Permian, before becoming globally dis-
tributed during the Late Permian

**Parareptilia (near-reptiles) (Wikipedia)
is a subclass or clade of basal sauropsids, typically considered the sister taxon
to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds). Parareptiles
first arose near the end of the Carboniferous period and achieved their highest diversity
during the Permian period.