Xenopermian Biota of the Ural Sea: Brontopator chapsia, a hippodont dicynodont

The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World Project, or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?

This is the next post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics. In our first post, we talked about the first faunal member of the Xenopermian, Graviloricanasus roma, a pseudochelonid and very derived pareiasaur. Then we talked about Elyardia hensonii, a very derived anomodont. Then we talked about the alternate pterosaur, Maralae whittoni.  Another time we talked about the trematosaurine temnospondyl Chronoperifronius thassalicus.  Post before last, we looked at the walrodont, Psittacops makradens.   The last post we looked at the desmodont dicynodont, Palonatator beccus.

Today we are sticking with the dicynodonts.  It will be the last dicynodont post for some time.  However, we are looking today at another branch that has been nicknamed the 'hippodonts' since they have developed in parallel in form (somewhat) and function (more so) to the hippopotamuses of our timeline.  The parallel evolutionary example we will work with today is Brontopator chapsia.

Brontopator chapsia is an example of another fictional and derived member of the clade Thassalothere which are a clade of the dicynodonts, an important group within the anomodonts.  These are in turn therapsids like the gorgons, therocephalians and cynodonts.  That last is inclusive of the mammals like you, you darned dirty ape, you!

During the great Evolutionary Churn of the XenoPermian, when the Siberian Traps did a 10 million year long sustained eruption instead of the bursty nastiness causing the Permian Triassic mass Extinction, the dicynodonts branched out into different clades.  The dicynodonts were already very successful herbivores and as the innovation took place within the clade, the dicynodonts started to exploit new resources.  One of these was the waterways.  The dicynodonts took to the water, despite not really being semi aquatic in OTL, and found a very unexploited set of niches with the lack of aquatic herbivores at the time.  The basal most thassalothere took to the swampy regions.  From there, they branched out into what would be informally called the hippodonts (river dwellers), walrodonts (sea residents) and desmodonts (swamp dwellers).

The hippodonts look like the strange cousins of Placerias.   They are big and portly and spend most of their time in the water.  They munch on the aquatic plants and come on land to graze at night.  While there is no grass in the XenoPermian, there are plenty of low herbaceous conifers and fast growing ferns.  They live in small herds and birth live young.

  

Brontopator chapsia is pretty generic for a hippodont.  They have a semi sprawled front leg stance and can and do charge predators.  Their thick skulls and semi forward facing tusks make them a serious hazard for predators.  They do protect their young and do not have large litters, rather one or two at a time.  Their young are more developed than the desmodont and walrodonts'.  However, they are still birthed on land.

One species of hippodont, not B. chapsia, actually seems to do some minor intentional environmental engineering and digs side pools to the rivers which they live.  In there, they raise their young, defended from even the reptilomorph and temnospondyls lurking in the rivers. This cousin does have a problem with reptilomorphs though.  The communally nesting variety can and will take over unoccupied hippodont ponds.  The repitlomorphs are not a match one on one, but when they have taken over a pond, they will enmass defend it.    That many reptilomorphs get rather hungry when they are sitting in the defense for so long.  They'll eschew eating the eats, but they can take down baby hippodonts in the area.

Brontopator chapsia is common in the short rivers running into the Ural Sea.  Cousins of their's are present in most rivers draining into the Tethys and in some draining into the Panthalassa.  Two species even migrate from the Transpangaea Mountains down into the Megavongo.

Their biggest predators are the gorgonopsids.  They are large enough to take down an adult B. chapsia.  However, the gorgons prefer munching on the young or sick.  The second most deadly are the venomous felid-like therocephalians that will ambush a herd, take a bite and run, letting its poison kill whatever it bit.  The large adult B. chapsia will pull through.  However, the young or old will not.  Temnospondyls are a problem as well when the herd takes to the water: they can wait crocodile like in the water to attack and pull young under the water for a kill.  This is rather risky given the strength of a stab by the hippodont tusks.

The hippodonts will last to the XenoPermian Jurassic Mass Extinction.  However, an Elvis Taxon would arise in the Cretaceous from a NeoDicynodont clade.  This mimicing lineage would die out in the Cretaceous-Eocene Extinction at the Mesozoic/Allozoic boundary.  Examples of competing parallel evolution would take place during the Allozoic, with dicynodonts, therocephalians and mammals duking it out up until the Pleistocene for the ecological niche.  However, the true hippodonts were gone 200 million years earlier.

Xenopermian Biota of the Ural Sea: Palonatator beccus, a desmodont dicynodont

The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World Project, or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?

This is the next post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics. In our first post, we talked about the first faunal member of the Xenopermian, Graviloricanasus roma, a pseudochelonid and very derived pareiasaur. Then we talked about Elyardia hensonii, a very derived anomodont. Then we talked about the alternate pterosaur, Maralae whittoni.  Last time we talked about the trematosaurine temnospondyl Chronoperifronius thassalicus.  Last week, we looked at the walrodont, Psittacops makradens.   

This week we are going continue with the anomodont therapsids with a some of the close relatives of the walrodonts, the desmodonts.  Specifically, we are going to be taking a look at Palonatator beccus.

Palonatator beccus is an example of another fictional and derived member of the clade Thassalothere which are a clade of the dicynodonts, an important group within the anomodonts.  These are in turn therapsids like the gorgons, therocephalians and cynodonts.  That last is inclusive of the mammals like you, you hairless ape, you!

During the great Churn of the XenoPermian, the dicynodonts branched out into different clades.  The dicynodonts were already very successful herbivores and as the innovation took place within the clade, the dicynodonts started to exploit new resources.  One of these was the waterways.  It had long been thought dicynodonts were semiaquatic, but it turns out they were not by and large in our time line.  Approximately 250 million years ago, when the Siberian Traps started erupting, the basal most thassalothere took to the swampy regions.  From there, they branched out into what would be informally called the hippodonts (river dwellers), walrodonts (sea residents) and desmodonts (swamp dwellers).

The desmodonts are in some ways more derived than their cousins.  They developed a parasagittal stance convergent with the neodicynodonts.  They also were rather more gracile than most of the other thassalotheres.  They picked up a number of traits in their adaptation to the water that reminded of the desmostylians.  Hence where they got their informal nickname.  However, they were very much dicynodonts and retained the beak and grinding mill.  One of the most striking differences is that they have lost the canine which the dicynodonts are most famous for.

However, they are nowhere as nearly derived as the walrodonts, of course.

Palonatator beccus is a pretty generic member of the clade.  They, like their relatives, inhabit swampy ground where they can eat both aquatic and waterside flora.  They are relatively quick and can out run many larger predators and those they cannot, they run into deeper water where the predators fear to tread.

They do have problems with the temnospondyls and reptilomorphs inhabiting the waterways of the swamps.  Their young are the most vulnerable.  However, on land the giant derived gorgons are dangerous even tot he adult P. beccus.  However, moving in herds does help with the predator problems.

The desmodonts are confined to the Ural Sea and along the Tethys Sea.  They are not, largely due to being unable to spread along the coastline, resident in the deltas of the Panthalassa.  Speculation is the waters are simply too cold.

The desmodonts will exist for approximately 25 million years.  They originated 10 million years before the current snapshot of the XenoPermian.  They will last until the X-J Extinction which is coming up rather soon, in 15 million years from the time of the snapshot we have here of the XenoPermian.  The Mesozoic will have different animals fill the roles the desmodonts fill.

Xenopermian Biota of the Ural Sea: Psittacops makradens, a walrodont dicynodont

The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World Project, or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?

This is the next post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics. In our first post, we talked about the first faunal member of the Xenopermian, Graviloricanasus roma, a pseudochelonid and very derived pareiasaur. Then we talked about Elyardia hensonii, a very derived anomodont. Then we talked about the alternate pterosaur, Maralae whittoni.  Last time we talked about the trematosaurine temnospondyl Chronoperifronius thassalicus.

Today we return to the therapsids.  Specifically, we are returning to the anomodonts and one rather peculiar branch of the most famous of anomodonts (dicynodonts) called we, their creators, have been affectionately calling the 'walrodont:' Psittacops makradens.

Psittacops makradens: Parrot face Walruses, erm, long teeth of the Ural Sea

Psittacops makradens is an example of a derived anomodont. Anomodonts are one of the major clades of therapsids, very derived synapsids that superceded the pelycasaurs like Dimetrodon. Other famous derviced clades are the gorgonopsids, therocephalians and cynodonts (of which mammals – and you! – are a part of).

During the Great Churn, when the Siberian Traps long erupted long and slow at the start of the XenoPermian, rather the short and quick according to our timeline, some of the dicynodonts actually adapted to being semiaquatic.  The irony is that the dicynodonts have been called semiaquatic for a long, long time, but generally were not.

This branch of dicynodonts became what the cross time paleontologists would call the Thassalotheres.  These in turn would develop clades which were more derived and specialized as forms that would be labeled based on their general form as Hippodonts, desmodonts and walrodonts.  These were not their scientific names, but work well enough for our purposes.  The hippodonts became the dominant forms in lakes and rivers.  The more gracile desmodonts became dwellers of the swampy lands.  Finally, the walrodonts would take to the open oceans.

P. makradens is modestly sexually dimorphic species having a lot of parallels with our own pinnipeds and walruses.  They come onto the beach to sun and bare their young.  They bare live young, which they take care of, but are relatively developed.  They could give birth at sea, but the sea is a dangerous place, in some ways more than land.  However, even so land is still dangerous and the the walrodonts will form colonies to protect each other and the young. 

On land, they must protect against raids by the giant gorgonopsids, gracile canid and venomous felid-like therocephalians, Xenosuchus and temnospondyls.  The latter are often a problem as the walrodonts transition from land to water or vice versa.  However, none of these are nearly as dangerous as the hovasaurs.  These newt-ish basal diapsids have developed into mosasaur-like predators in the sea where they are a real danger to the young.  They didn't develop the fish-like tail though.

The walrodonts are herbivores.  They dive to eat the kelp-like algae forests.  P makradens eats the ones growing throughout the Ural Sea, even becoming something of a deep diver since the Ural Sea is so well mixed.  They will occasionally take a shelly bivalve for the mineral supplement.  They have coevolved with the local marine forest algae where the algae grows rather fast and sometimes had been called sea kudzu.  A colony of walrodonts might mow their way through the algae forest only for it to be largely regrown in a matter of weeks.  

Psittacops makradens is not the only species of walrodont.  There are four others.  Two others are of the same genera and live in Tethys.  Psittacops erythros is common in the western Tethys on the shores of the mainland and Psittacops corvus resides in the islands and archipelagoes of the eastern Tethys.  In the Panthalassa, on the northern mainland of Pangaea coast resides Ododenodon millerensis, a very robust and heavily tusked species (pictured above).  A cogeneric species, O. amos is on the southern coast of Pangaea.  

The walrodonts would survive through the XenoPermian-Jurassic Extinction.  However, they would not make it past the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition, save for a single species.  It would die out though by the time of Middle Cretaceous during the anoxic events.  Their form would not be replicated by Juxtarodentia in the Allozoic, the surviving lineage of dicynodonts would not return to the sea.  Therocephalians would have a chubby descendant that would like vaguely like a walrus, but without the tusks in the Allozoic glaciations though.

Xenopermian Biota of the Ural Sea: Chronoperifronius thassalicus, a trematosaurine temnospondyl

The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World Project, or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?

This is the next post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics. In our first post, we talked about the first faunal member of the Xenopermian, Graviloricanasus roma, a pseudochelonid and very derived pareiasaur. Then we talked about Elyardia hensonii, a very derived anomodont. Then we talked about the alternate pterosaur, Maralae whittoni.

Today we leap from the amniotes to the nonamniotes.  Generally, the amniotes dominate the terrestrial ecology of the Xenopermian, but there are a number of interesting and important nonamniotes which participate.  Because there was no mass extinction, but rather a great evolutionary churn from the extended and muted Siberian Traps eruption.

Our first foray into nonamniote territory is Chronoperifronius thassalicus, a Xenopermian temnospondyl trematosaur.  What is a trematosaur?

Trematosaurs: the Marine Temnospondyls of the Permian, Triassic & Jurassic

The trematosaurs were a clade of temnospondyli.  Temnospondyls were one of the clades of what could be loosely called amphibians.  The two other are lissamphibians and lepospondyls.  The exact relationship between them is very contentious. 

Trematosaurs were a clade which originated in the Permian.  They were one of two clades of temnospondyls to survive the Permian Triassic Extinction in our time line.  They would diversify and even do something which is quite remarkable: they invaded the marine environment.  That's something not very common for tetrapods prior to reptiles.  Trematosaurs would become increasingly adapted to their new environment and would be excellent examples of parallel evolution relative to the crocodilians. 

It was thought the trematosaurs declined over the course of the Triassic and to be wiped out finally in the Triassic Jurassic extinction.  However, it was proven incorrect.  It seems the extinction failed to do the deed: postcranial skeletal fossils from a trematosaur were found in China from the late Jurassic.  If anything, its quite possible they may have survived longer still: the chigutisaurs (Koolasuchus) made it to the Aptian Cretaceous.

Trematosaurs of the XenoPermian

The XenoPermian didn't have the PT Extinction and this would cause no small ripple effects when it came to biota.  The increased numbers of temnospondyls is one of them.  In our case, in the Ural Sea Biota, Chronoperifronius thassalicus.

Chronoperifronius thassalicus - time despiser of the sea - is a marine, or rather beach dwelling, trematosaur.  The trematosaurs of our time line were piscovores.  C. thassalicus has started to return to the land or at least raiding the beach and the near shore, becoming a true carnivore.  With the increase of beach dwelling critters, such as the marululateans and the walrodonts, the edibles have increased from merely the washed ashore or whatnot.

C thassalicus takes two different approaches.  When it encounters a colony of beach dwelling therapsids, like those mentioned above, it attempt to lie in wait just past the wave break, not unlike how crocodiles would in freshwater of our time line.  When the colony would take to the sea, one or more would act in ambush to take a warm blooded therapsid.  However, during breeding seasons, when the therpasids have either pupped or laid eggs, C thassalicus will often charge the beach, hoping to scatter much of the colony to grab a pup or eggs.  

C thassalicus is starting to have competition though.  The archosaur, Xenosuchus prognathus, has moved east from what would be Russia and has successfully crossed to both sides of the Ural Sea.  Not as amphibious, but perfectly capable of swimming, has also taken to primarily predating the therapsid beach colonies.  This increases the pressure on the trematosaurs.  It will not, however, cause them to become extinct.  They largely go under during the X-J Extinction with some relic populations in the Arctic and Antarctic.  There they will survive until the K-T or rather K-Pg Extinction at 55.8 Million Years.

In the mean time, C thassalicus and her relatives will dispute the water ways with the crododilians.  The archosaurs and their relatives will be held at bay until the XJ Extinction, largely excluded from the waterways, but not totally.  One great casualty of the temnospondyl strength will be the 'fact' phytosaurs will never grade the waterways of the allohistorical Earth we describe.

One of the reasons is that C thassalicus and her marine relatives produced an interesting reproductive strategy: they birthed live young, fully formed, not unlike what frogs do with undersized juveniles, the "froglets." This allows the trematosaurs to no longer require returning to freshwater to breed.  Other trematosaurs would become thoroughly adapted to marine life, becoming limbless and become obligatory aquatic.    Producing greater sea monsters for a time, but eventually the purely aquatic forms losing out to hovasaurs and others with better respiratory systems at the XJ Extinction.

In the end, they will have made their mark and have given a good run, from the Mid XenoPermian until the end of the Mesozoic even if they do despise the passage of time.

Xenopermian Teaser: Niictodon gobelinus

This is a sketch  to make sure we're on the same page for this guest in another critter's scene.

So, guesses as to the phylogenetic placement of our friend here?

Raven Amos is the artist.

XenoPermian Biota of the Ural Sea: Maralae whittoni, a pterosaur

THE XENOPERMIAN OF THE URAL SEA

The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World Project, or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?

This is the first post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics. In our first post, we talked about the first faunal member of the Xenopermian, G roma, a pseudochelonid and very derived pareiasaur. Then we talked about Elyardia hensonii, a very derived anomodont. 

Today we leap from the very odd therapsids and the derived parareptiles to another of the three major clades of amniotes which grace the XenoPermian. Diapsids in the Permian, both the real life one and the Permian up to and including the Guadelupian were pretty unimportant. Some small forms which graced the here and there, which a handful of larger animals as well. However, they were relatively unimportant to the overall ecology and lived in edge niches. This began to change with evolutionary churn which began with the guadelupian into the extended Xenopermian eruptions of the Siberian Traps.

Opportunistically, the diapsids began to fill different niches. Ironically, except in a few island cases, few became what we would think of as squamates: they would be outcompeted by the millerettids until the XJ extinction. Most would follow other familiar patterns, hovasaurs would break out into the marine environment to compete with the trematosaurs. Archosaurs and their kin with their moderately successful and novel breathing would take to the water…and to the air. And, yes, Virginia, there would be dinosaurs. They were minor participants in the grand ecology of the allohistorical ecology, but they were present. On islands and in thin aired mountains, the dinosaurs and endothermic archosaurs would truly make their mark. And from those heights would spread in a niche only partially filled, the second vertebrate fliers of the XenoPermian: the pterosaurs.

(yes, that's a trematosaur, we'll get to them...erm...soon)

Beginning with something not unlike a very gracile, very small, gliding animal looking somewhat like a crocodile, the pterosaurs would first take to the mountain airs above the Transpangean Mountains, leaping between upland trees and then taking to flight. First they were bug and arboreal hunters, feeding off of smaller animals in the trees. Then snatching fish and temnospodyl and lepospondyl spawn in the cold pools high in the mountains, safe from other animals in the warmer climes below. As their flight capabilities increased, they spread down and out from the mountains. Their spread was at first stymied by the first vertebrate fliers, the rib flapping flutterzards. However, the pterosaurs were simply better fliers and slowly the flutterzards were displaced. If not for the rise of the suminopterans, the pterosaurs would have solely ruled the skies like in our time until the Cretaceous.

The pterosaurs would spread into the Ural Sea region in time. The first lineages were the orophilic, living in the Ural and AntiUral Mountains. Later, though not more than a million years, the piscovorous lineages would spread along the Ural Sea itself. A characteristic species of the latter is Maralae whittoni.

M. whittoni has a curious lifestyle. For this reason, there are no flutterzards left in the Ural Sea forests. M. whittoni practices chronological niche partitioning. There are three populations and the details vary between them due to behavioural differences. The western population is so named because the breeding grounds are in the foothills of the AntiUrals to the west. The eastern population migrates inland to the Urals. The southern population actually lives on craggy, but marshy isles that reside at the mouth of the Ural Sea to the Tethys. They do fish in the Tethys, but for whatever reason the majority migrate back up into the Ural Sea each year.

As with most Xenopermian pterosaurs, the young can fly within a week. M whittoni then escorts the hatchlings to the coastal forests of the Ural Sea. There the young are abandoned. There, they become aerial pursuit predators, chasing down insects on the wing by and large. They do indulge in nest raiding opportunistically. They live colonially in trees for protection. Their noise is cacophonous.

Once they are around three years of age, adolescent M whittoni move to different colonies and begin to exploit the rivers and ponds and lakes for food, even taking small vertebrates by swooping and snatching. The attrition of the newborn to three year olds is pretty significant and only around 10% of the bug eaters making it to the terrestrial and freshwater forager stage.

Finally, at age five, “teenage” and full adult M whittoni have migrated out to the sea and become reproductively active. Here they exploit the seas directly, becoming divers after fish and exploit the carrion bounty of the seashore. At this stage, M whittoni is often solitary, though some pairs or incidental flocks have been noted.

By doing niche partitioning in this manner, M whittoni decreases cross-generational competition. It also can exploit more resources, as a species, than many others. The flutterzards, being weaker fliers, are unable to compete with the insectivorous stage M whittoni and have become extinct in the Ural Sea region.

The southern population differs from the other two. The southern isles, formally called the Angliski, are swampy and have limited forests. The terrestrial forager stage flit between isles in flocks, hunting through the fern and mangrove-esque swamps. The bug biter stage stay local to each island they are hatched on. Selection as a result is very powerful and it seems likely M whittoni’s southern population will diverge from the other two populations in the relatively near future.

Given M whittoni’s lifestyle, it would be correctly assumed their species was not a physically large one.  The largest of them would have a wing span of two meters and that was an exceptional example.  Due to their size and their rhamphorhynoid grade planiform, M whittoni is largely airborne, roosting in trees or in cliffs.

 

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This does bring it into conflict with arboreal species.  The manisuminids, including Elyardia, and the foliosensians are two of the largest problems for M whittoni, including being the largest single source of casualties to other animals in the region.  A pterosaur could seriously wound, if not kill, a lone Elyardia.  However, the pterosaur itself would be wounded and Elyardia is gregarious.  And ganged together would kill a M whittoni easily.  Adult M whittoni can easily dispact any of the arboreal foliosensian cynodonts, but ‘rat packs’ which some times raid the fledgling colonies are a serious source of adolescent mortality.

 

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When confronted by a manisuminid or foliosensian, a three year old or older M whittoni will first display.  This is accomplished by brandishing its teeth and hiss loudly.  If this fails, it will make false lunges at the offending Xenopermian critter.  If this is still not enough, it will flee and defecate.  When it does it, the excreta will have an extra foul smelling substance.  This often drives off an offender, but M whittoni does not linger to find out.  A rat pack raid can be smelled from the juvnile M whittoni colony long before it can be seen or heard. 

M whittoni would survive up until the XJ Boundary while M whittoni’s lineage and descendents would have a good run of it. They would survive the XJ Extinction and even reach the end of the Jurassic. While the pterosaurs as a whole would survive the Bristol Impact at the end of the Cretaceous 55 million years ago, none of the rhamphorhynchine grade pterosaurs, and thus none would be of M whittoni’s line would make it into the Allozoic. While they would be missed, with birds, bats, suminopterans and pterodactyl grade pterosaurs, the Allozoic skies are far from dull.

A Liberated XenoPermian Pic

This one was featured in the Elyardia post, but had not been seen separately.  Just liberating it.

XenoPermian Biota of the Ural Sea: Elyadia hensonii, a manisuminid

THE XENOPERMIAN OF THE URAL SEA

The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World project , or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?

This is the first post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics. In our last post, we talked about the first faunal member of the Xenopermian, G roma, a pseudochelonid and very derived pareiasaur. Now we are shifting to the trees to talk about our first therapsid, Elyardia hensonii.

Welcome Elyardia: Anomalous Teeth, Beaks and Bites

Elyardia hensonii is an example of a derived anomodont. Anomodonts are one of the major clades of therapsids, very derived synapsids that superceded the pelycasaurs like Dimetrodon. Other famous derviced clades are the gorgonopsids, therocephalians and cynodonts (of which mammals – and you! – are a part of).

The anomodonts had three main clades, as far as we can tell. The two lesser known ones were the venjukoviamorpha (small Laurasian herbivores and possibly omnivores) and the anomocephalians (which were Gondawanan in origin, but large herbivores). The most famous of the anomodonts and most successful in real life were the dicynodonts, of which the relatively famous Lystrosaurus was one. In real life, the other two clades of anomodonts seem to have gone extinct around the Guadalupean. The dicynodonts would be very successful through the Triassic and even survive into the Early Cretaceous of Australia. Again, in real life. All of the anomodonts seem to have had a peculiar front to back chewing mechanism that was developed to the most extreme in the dicynodonts.

XenoPermian Anomodont Phylogeny

All three of the major clades of anomodonts have become important in the Xenopermian. The dicynodonts are the dominant clade, to be sure, filling niches between that of marine herbivore to large herbivore to rodent analog, but the other two are major members of the fauna. The anomocephalans have given rise to the Tiarajudensines. These are derived from Tiarajudens, the earliest known tusked or sabre toothed herbivore. They are split into two clades based on their derived dental arrangement: foreward facing tusks (hastadensids) or sabre teeth (gladiotaurines). They are very large sized herbivores, though rarely gregarious ones. The venjukoviamorpha developed into a cluster of small bodied herbivores and omnivores. They dominate the arboreal and mountain realms. They contest the rodent like niches with juxtarodentia (dicynodonts) in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of Pangaea. They even contest the skies with the two flying diapsid clades. The most common venjukoviamorph in the Ural Sea region is Elyardia hensonii.

Elyardia hensonii is derived from Suminia, a real life fascinating taxon. In the Xenopermian, Suminia was a founder of a fascinating and very important lineage.  E hensonii is a descendent of Suminia as a member of that clade.  Specifically, Elyardia is an example of a nonspecialized, arboreal manisuminid, (handed suminid or suminid with hands). This is a branch of the suminid lineage, those that are derived from Suminia in our fictitious XenoPermian. The other is the Suminopterans, one of the XenoPermian’s three clades of vertebrate fliers.

Something Other This Way Comes: the "Paleo"biology of Elyardia

The manisuminids are mostly, but not exclusively, arboreal. They fill roles similar to squirrels and primates. E hensonii is a relatively basal member of the clade that mostly eats gingko nuts, but supplements its diet by raiding nests for eggs, periodically munching on insects and eating foliage either in tough times or for roughage.  It would be tempting to call the manisuminds the primates of the Xenopermian. There are parallels between the two fictitiously related clades, but there are massive differences as well.

Primates are placental mammals. This allows them to bare live, very developed young. Elyardia and the rest of the manisuminids are definitely not mammals, even if they are fuzzy. They independently developed the ability to bare live young and even suckle their young in a manner similar to monotreme mammals. The live young they bare though are very underdeveloped and must be cared for extensively. However, the time cycle for taking care of their progeny blurs the K/r selection line to some extent. They have fewer pups at a time, but they generally reproduce quite frequently.

One of the great drivers of primate evolution was the presence of fruit. Tropical fruit had a profound impact. Flowering plants do not exist in the XenoPermian. They will arrive, but later, during the alternate Mesozoic and somewhat earlier than their great flowering in the Cretaceous. The presence of the manisuminids and their cousins, the fissonucines, would drive a great deal more innovation in the gingko tree evolution, producing many variants that never existed in OTL. The same held true for changes to coniferous cones as well.

The threats and competitors that the manisuminids would face were radically different than anything the primates did. There are hardly any pterosaurs in the Cenozoic. Nor were there flying primates, which would be the closest parallel with the suminopterans. Pterosaurs are actually one of the biggest problems for manisuminids. While far from large, pterosaurs could and would dive in to raid for young. An adult Elyardia was a serious danger for pterosaurs: their bites are sufficient to lame a pterosaur that they do not outright kill.

Other threats in the trees include, the foliosensids – arboreal insectivorous cynodonts – that take pups and can kill adults if driven to; niictodons (an arboreal parareptilian scavenger with immense bite forces necessary to crush bone) can be a menace if Elyardia is unlucky; and in other habitats, Suminopterans are not above raiding manisuminid nests. Of course, other manisuminids are a problem.

When traversing the ground between copses of gingkoes and other trees, Acerdens (a cynodont that has parallels with badgers), the unnamed ‘sprintocrocs’ and the paratheropods are also problematic. Larger predators rarely notice Elyardia and their kind: they are too much effort for the amount of meat acquired.

The threats from predators have produced some interesting behaviors. Manisuminids are nesters. Depending on the species, how they nest is vastly different. Elyardia nests by finding a large branch and building a large nest from sticks, leaves and other materials. Their hands allow for the innovation that this represents. The nests themselves are often adorned with sticks that have been chewed into a sharpened state and the points are placed outwards.

Elyardia is very gregarious and a colony can occupy a huge tree at very branching point. Every year, the majority of the young leave the colony to either join another or start their own. Most do not succeed, becoming lunch or a snack for some other entity of the XenoPermian.

Likewise, mating season is quite loud and horribly smelly with males jockeying for position in the social structure and females selecting with whom they mate based on the nest construction and displays. Older males, those that have built up their nests over time almost always come out well during the season.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes!  Skeletal Changes from Suminia to manisuminids.

 

Suminia top, Elyardia bottom

The changes to E hensonii from Suminia have been largely constrained to four areas: respiratory, locomotive and cranial. They are driven by the niche and lifestyle of the manisuminids.  Relatively speaking, Elyardia is fairly conservative in its changes, morphologically speaking.

E hensonii and most of the therapsids that made it through the great evolutionary churn that was initiated by the stretched out Siberian Traps of the XenoPermian developed an improved set of lungs. E hensonii came out with an improved tidal breathing apparatus, one that mirrors the method of how the lungs work in modern mammals. Likewise, E hensonii is also endothermic and bounces around the treetops of the Ural Sea region with a great deal of energy.

The changes to the skull are pretty profound on E hensonii compared to Suminia. There are three areas that are of interest. The first is driven by the continued necessities of being a arboreal animal. The suminid line developed binocular vision. Binocular vision developed early on in the suminid line and both the suminopterans and manisuminids retained the trait. The second trait that has developed to an extreme in the manisuminids is heterodontia. The teeth have become more and more specialized. Elyardia has heavy, peglike “incisors” and very molar-like back teeth. This has been driven by the diet related to the gingko nut and its various relatives.

 The chewing action has changed from the basal mill process that anomodonts had, but still processes the food far more than any other therapsids save the cynodonts, other anomodonts and a singular clade of therocephalians. One advantage that the manisuminids have over cynodonts is that they replace their teeth throughout their lives. Although, they are relatively short lives most of the time.

The final collection of traits that has significantly changed from the ancestral sumina is that of locomotion. To speed up, the limbs have become parasaggital. Likewise, the hands have developed into true hands with opposable thumbs. This has allowed the manisuminids to become even more adept climbers and dominate the canopies throughout the XenoPermian world. Their tails have become fully prehensile as well. It is not uncommon to see Elyardia to be dangling by the tail eating or reaching for food.  They are often also used during displays: individuals hanging from their tails and calling and squawking. 

Past the Future

Elyardia's lineage will exist for a long time.  Manisuminids make it past the XenoPermian-Jurassic Extinction and continue to thrive.  They will even make it past the K-E Extinction at the end of the Mesozoic.  They were always a very important member of the fauna, but in the Allozoic (the alternate of the Cenozoic) is when the manisuminids come into their own, being one of the most dominant clades present.  They will outlast the gorgons and parieasaurs.  They will outlast the megafaunal dicynodonts, or at least those not derived from juxtarodentia.  Their response to the greatly increased competition that arose during the late Allozoic glaciations will be fascinating.  However, that is beyond the scope of the XenoPermian, being 213 million years hence.

Notes:

Yeah!  Next Xenopermian done.  The it only took a year and change.  Oy.  There will be two smaller posts in the near future.  The first one will be about our friend the pterosaur.  Given that they are relatively well known from our own timeline I will just touch on them (and risk looking a bit foolish, though I will consult some of the netizens known for their pterosaur knowledge). The next post will not be a year away.

Personally, I loved the touch that Scott put into the first altercation pic: the pseudochelonids of that last post are featured in the beach.  It helps tie, at least visually, the narrative together.

Any questions or comments or corrections, please post.

Xenopermian: Alas, a Teaser, Alternate Anomodont Phylogeny

This week was also brutal though I did move the ball forward on finishing the post, but just could not get it done for today.  There are three clades left living in the Xenopermian of anomodonts.  They are the descendents of Tiarajudens, the dicynodonts and Venjukoviamorphs (suminids and friends).

Enjoy.

Xenopermian: One More Teaser

This week has been really, really, really bad for me.  I was not able to work on the XenoPermian post for today.  It will be ready for next week though.

Last Teaser Before the Post

Suminia vs Elyardia, in the fuzz, basal to derived in 45 million years.

Xenopermian Query: Other Anomodont Lineages?

Hey folks. 

I'm working on the Xenopermian and it occurred to me that I have three major lineages within the anomodonts playing significant roles: the dicynodonts (duh), venjukoviamorpha (semi duh) and anomocephaloidea (slightly duh).

Are there any others that are a bit more obscure but interesting?

Next Xenopermian Teaser

Xenopermian Teaser for Friday: Dem Skulls

According to one of the describers of Suminia, Scott got the skull(top two cranial views)  really really close to the real deal.  The bottom two is Elyardia hensonii, so named by Zach.

Xenopermian Teaser for Friday (again)

Xenopermian Gift Teaser for the Weekend

XernoPermian is FAR From Dead

We're just a little busy.  Since others are waiting for a bit of awesomeness, I'll share this one.  Name ancestors of the critters.   When I have the cladogram done for the critter on the right, I'll put up the long delayed post.

XenoPermian: An Astounding Walrodont Scene

I hate having this one languish because of the issues of moving the XenoPermian forward.  Its simply too gorgeous to NOT share.  What happens when the dicynodonts adapt to the ocean?  Well, Zach's walrodont.  Redone by Raven and Scott.

This will be subsumed into a greater walrodont post, but that will be a while coming.  The next real post (which is half written and fully illustrated) is on another anomodont's descendants. 

XenoPermian Biota of the Ural Sea: Graviloricanasus roma, a pseudochelonid

THE XENOPERMIAN OF THE URAL SEA

The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World project , or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?

This is the first post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics.

Despite the fact that the world is largely dominated by the different clades of therapsids, other major lineages are major participants in the ecology of the XenoPermian. Rather than start with a therapsid, we decided to talk about a parareptile first. That first critter is a pareiasaur. That begs the questions of what is a parareptile and what is a pareiasaur?

What are the parareptiles?

Parareptiles are a clade of amniotes that have been in the past often labeled ‘anapsids.’ Amniotes, vertebrate animals that have an amniotic sack and, for the most part, are terrestrial, were divided into different groups based on the shape and structure of their skulls. Synapsids are those that had a single hole in the skull for muscle to attach. Modern mammals are the only current survivors of that clade. Diapsids are the second group and currently comprise reptiles and birds except perhaps turtles. That will be explained later. Diapsids have two holes in their skulls for anchoring their jaw muscles. Finally, there was another large traditional group, the anapsids. These amniotes had no holes in their skulls. Traditionally, this included turtles as the sole surviving members of the clade, but with a vast number of extinct relatives. There was another group, the euryapsids, but they were a smaller group that was largely centered around the extinct marine reptiles.



It turns out that the shape and number of holes in the skull were not quite the best, most accurate way to group the different clades of animals. It is possible for diapsids to redevelop, for whatever reason, the anapsid (no hole) cranial condition. This was discovered when cladistics became the tool of choice by paleontologists to determine evolutionary relationships between fossils.

A number of families and genuses were shuffled around. Interestingly, the synapsids were untouched as a group. The diapsids largely held together, but the anapsids were slaughtered as far as a ‘natural group’ (meaning closely related and descended from a common ancestor). Some ‘anapsids’ were actually diapsids that had evolved or re-evolved the anapsid condition. When the arguing was done, the skull type that has been referred to as ‘anapsid’ applied to some species that were actually descended from the diapsids and many that were not. The proposal was made to rename the remaining anapsids that were not closely related to diapsids ‘parareptiles’ (next to reptiles) and accepted by the community as a whole.

The placement of turtles is fairly contentious. The pour critters are fought over whether they are members of a group that went through parallel evolution and evolved the anapsid condition from a diapsid ancestor or actually belonged back as a sole surviving members of the parareptiles. There is strong evidence that they are actually diapsids now from studying microRNA, but cladistic analysis by and large, well, almost consistently shows them to be parareptiles. This argument, as far as I can tell, has yet to be resolved.

Other than turtles, parareptiles comprise many fascinating and interesting groups. The seemingly first bipedal animals, the bolosaurs, are members of the group. The procolonphids are another interesting member. The nycoleters and their relatives are the first amniotes, it appears, to have evolved the middle ear from the apparently deaf ancestral condition. (Yes, the basal amniotes were deaf it seems, but that is another discussion for another time) Finally, most importantly for the Xenopermian and this post, the clade that we care about most is the pareiasaurs.

What were the pareiasaurs?



The pareiasaurs were one of the earliest large megafauna. They were herbivores that grew to be as large as ten feet long and were built like tanks. In fact, the pareiasaurs were the largest herbivores of their time and were built such that they housed a massive gut for digesting the tough plants of their era. Their teeth looked leaf like and not unlike those of iguanas

They were also tanks, as noted, and had scutes, osteoderms, in their skin. Most likely this was to deal with the very large and deadly gorgonopsids. Some have projected that the gorgons and pareiasarus were in an arms race where the armor of these critters built up to deal with the ever increasing size and viciousness of the canines of the gorgons.

If you want to know more, we recommend the basics at Wikipedia and the more extensive website at the University of California at Berkeley.

In our time line, they went extinct during the Permian Extinction. However, our timeline iwe actually live in s not that of the Xenopermian. The Xenopermian didn’t have a PT Event to wipe out all life. True, the Siberian Traps did erupt, but more gradually and over the course of millions of years instead of violently in a relatively short burst. This caused a period of evolutionary innovation and turnover, but did not wipe out many of the large clades. The pareiasaurs benefitted from that time of innovation and went on to develop into interesting clades.

Elginiformes, Scutosauroformes and Therischia, oh my!

Xenopermian Pareiasauria cladogram

Technically, all of the surviving pareiasaurian of the Xenopermian are from Therischia. This is a particular clade within the pareiasaurian lineage. In paleontology, cladistics dictates that the different fossils found are evaluated as relatives rather than ancestors. Its highly unlikely, honestly, that any one fossil species found gave rise to others that are related since the fossil record is infamously and enormously incomplete. However, in our world that the Xenopermian, we know exactly who is descended from whom. Or rather what from what. In our timeline we have two different lineages of pareiasaurs that have survived through to the 15 million year mark before the Xenopermian-Jurassic Mass Extinction.

The first derives from the dwarf pareiasaur, Elginia, and is very common as solitary animals scattered about the more marginal habitats. There are several species and genuses in the Megavongo, for example. The Barred Quillosaur being an excellent example. They all have a generally sprawled stance and are heavy armored, but in a manor reminiscent of the thorny devils of modern day Australia. Though with some parallels to the styracaosaurian ceraptopsians (sans nasal and brow horns). However, while being very species and even somewhat genera diverse the elginiformes are not the most diverse nor “dominant” of the two pareiasaur lineages. That would be the scutosauriformes.

Scutosaurus was a rather large beast by modern standards. With being around ten feet long and a chest like a barrel, it weighed in over 1000 lbs. It had several innovations that made it – without the Permian Extinction – a potential founder of a new and important lineage. Some of these were the stance changes, massive expansion of the digestive tract, probable homeothermy and extensive increases in the armoring scutes. With the power of the massive selectivity of being the creators of this timeline, Scutosaurus went forth and begat several new clades. Three of those clades have survived into the late XenoPermian.

The most basal of them is Deimocephalia. These are large, sometimes up to 4.5m (15 ft) animals. They move in bull dominated herds over vast distances. They give some basic parental care to their young although this is pretty limited to guarding the nest and forming a protective barrier while en route between the young and the outside world. Their name, terror heads, derives from the fact that they have very fanciful, species specific, crown and frill ornamentation. This is more extreme in the males than females, but present in both. Additionally their skulls have thickened for further protection. They retain the ancestral scute armor of the scutosauriformes. This clade is most common in the plains and other open territories, but also present in smaller forms in the more open forests of the Xenopermian world that permit herding.

The next most derived clade is that of the Juggernautids. These are massive animals that in terms of mass, if not length, rival the sauropods of our time line. Between 6 meters (20 ft) and some species being as long as 10m (over 32 ft), they have developed the brachiosaurian layout with the forelegs being much longer than the hind. They tower over the landscape with heights between 4.5m (15ft) to as much as 6m (20ft) in the largest species. They do NOT have the extended long neck of the sauropods while one somewhat longer than the standard pareiasaurs in proportion. The juggernautids did not just get their name from their size, but also from the fact that they radically shape the environment from which they live. The bulldoze paths for food and often reduce forests to copses that are either inaccessible to the juggernautid, or ‘managed’ such that there is not an interior that the juggernautid cannot reach for feeding. Forests where juggernautids exist have a strange almost garden like appearance what seem like streets when viewed from above. Juggernautids are not noted for their parenting skills even if they mate for life. Their young are heavily armoured and their scutes tend to still be present but more scattered across the body as the animal grows, these primary scutes are surrounded by thinner, but still tough secondary scutes, which in turn are followed by tertiary scute development between those with straight scaly skin separating the rosarettes of the largest creatures.

Neither of the above clades is present around the Ural Sea. However, the final clade is.

The Pseudochelonids are a large, heavy herbivores. They are called the pseudochelonids (false turtles) because of their heavily armored carapaces. They have some elements that are convergent on turtles in that regard, with the scutes often fusing with the broad ribs in some genuses. Visually, most look closer to anklyosaurs rather than turtles, but the first example found of the clade was the most extreme in its armour development and set the nomenclature for the whole group.

Some of the unifying characteristics are that the ribs are broad and flat, almost forming a fused shell dorsally. This is often covered by scutes that are interlocking. The skulls are extremely thick and heavy: even their eyelids are armoured. The brain case is relatively small for an animal of their relative size as well. However, the olfactory and aural regions are relatively developed to support what is a very good sense of smell and moderately developed middle ear. They all have vestigal or nonexistent tails. Their scutes cover more than their torso region and extend down onto the legs. Like all scutosauriformes, they have a parasagittal stance.

They are by and large solitary animals, but do not have defined ranges except during mating season and tolerate one another quite well otherwise. They do not give parental care to their young, building a rocky nest and then abandoning them. The newly hatched young once their skin dries and hardens become what some atl paleontologists call ‘jaw breakers’ (fractognathine stage) because their scutes are so thick and dense. Their main sources of mortality once they have become jaw breakers are not predators, but rather disease and drowning. Post fractgnathinous stage starts when the animal reaches 1 meter (40 inches) in length because of the inability of the body to continue to scale up with such armor. When the animal has reached 1.5m (five feet) in length, it often is sexually mature, but while still heavily armoured, in danger from its primary predator: the gorgonopsids. In fact, the pseudochelonids and the gorgonopsids are in something of an arms race: heavier armour vs stronger bites and better piercing saber teeth.

Graviloricanasus roma



In the Ural Sea region the dominant member, both most common and largest, is Graviloricanasus roma (Roman’s heavily armored nose). Named for the discoverer, Thomas Roman, it became a bit of an in-joke because the olfactory organ – nose – was quite impressive and the great Roman Nose was too good to pass up. The belief is that the olfactory sense was highly developed for two reasons. The first was that it allowed G. roma to smell its primary predators and locate when particular foods were present.

Predation Around the Ural Sea

The gorgonopsids of the Ural Sea region were G roma's primary predators and were noted for scent marking their territories. A cross genera territorial struggle between the Baurbarops millerensis and Dispathadontis gracilis, the two large top predators in the Ural Sea left some very impressive olfactory battlefields. B. millerensis was rarer and larger gorgon largely preying on dicynodonts, especially, but definitely not exclusively, what has been popularly called the ‘Walrodonts.’ Other preferred dicynodonts included the other less specialized aquatic dicynodonts, such has the so called "Hippodonts," "desmodonts," and others. However, given the beach front territory of adult B milernensis and the sea weed dining habits of G roma, B millerensis will opportunistically predate this pseudochelonid. The sheer size and strength of B millernesis makes this predation possible despite the extensive armor of G roma.

Dispathadontis, while it could and would take other prey, was largely a specialist in pseudochelonids. In the Ural Sea region, this specifically means G roma. While B millerensis is noted for its brute force hunting style, D gracilis is more finessed. D gracilis is noted for hunting in mated pairs. The pairing will corner a G roma and then attempt to rip out its wind wipe through the use of their sabre teeth.

The only other predator of note of G roma is the ambush predator crurodont, Venofirodens macbethii, a member of the clade descended from the therocephalian Euchambersia. V macbethii relies, like all of its clade, on the delivery of a poisonous bite to its prey for it take-down mechanism rather than traumatic damage to an organism.

Of course, as eggs, G roma is at risk from a variety of potential predators. The cynodont genus, Acerdens, the small Xenopermian theropods, niictodonts, and even opportunistic raids from the trees by suminids and foliosensids can and do take their toll on the unhatched.

Diet Peculiarities

One of the benefits of the nasal system of G roma was that it also allowed for scenting food sources other than the norm for consumption. One of those is seaweed. The seaweeds that swept up from the very mixed waters of the Ural Sea are a nutritious addition to the normal diet. When the tide goes out, G roma often comes out of the coastal forest to dine, as pictured here. This is, however, the point that G roma is most in risk of predation from B millerensis.

However, for the majority of its nutritional needs, G roma browses within the Ural Sea coastal forests. Its diet is largely comprised of ferns and seed plant leaves. Its preference is not for horsetails or their allies, but will consume these during hard times.

Ecological Impact

G roma's impact on the local ecology is moderate, but appreciable. Its nothing like its remote cousins, the Juggernautids, but it is far from trivial. Within the Ural Sea coastal forests, wide avenues are present from the passage of G roma to and from certain locales, especially watering holes. This in turn, has stimulated seed baring plants to develop into upper canopy participants by leaving potential places for trees with wide boughs to collect light where the horsetails are unable to. Ginkgoes and others have taken advantage of this.

Other significant impacts are the specialization of Dispathadontis and the development of scatosporic ferns (dug heaps often sprout ferns in a massive way from consuming through an odd life cycle of certain fern species in the Ural Sea region).

Legacy

Graviloricanasus roma would last as a species for approximately three million years. Its genus would last to nearly the Xenopermian-Jurassic Extinction. All parieasaurs would go extinct during the XJ Event and take with them their "tormentors" and largely specialist carnivores, the gorgonopsids. It would be over 100 million years before another walking tank would arise, but it would not be another parareptile and it would happen outside the Xenopermian, well within the Mesozoic and embedded in the alternate Cretaceous. And thus, outside the scope of this project as yet.


Author's note: Here's our first critter. I hope that you folks enjoyed it. My apologies for the delay. Next up will be a therapsid. A notable little tree hugger for that matter. It will be a bit before it appears here, but hopefully not too long. I need yet another cladogram and its a far more complicated one than the above!