Bizarre carnivorous protomammal discovered in Zambia
For immediate release ‐ February 24, 2021
Contact: Jon Pishney, 919.707.8083. Images available upon request
Skull of Mobaceras zambeziense in dorsal view (left) and lateral view (right).
Museum paleontologist Christian Kammerer has described Mobaceras zambeziense, a new, bizarrely-horned predator from the Permian of Zambia (roughly 260 million years ago). A type of early synapsid (“protomammals” distantly related to modern mammals), Mobaceras was part of the diverse animal fauna that existed before the dinosaurs. It is distinguished by the presence of a “lollipop”-shaped horn on its snout and a series of exaggerated knob-like structures around the eyes. Mobaceras was roughly dog-sized and would have hunted small reptiles and other protomammals in its habitat. The fossils of Mobaceras were collected during recent expeditions to southern Zambia led by paper co-author Christian Sidor of the University of Washington.
Read the article in: Papers in Paleontology
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