Tiarajudens eccentricus by WillemSvdMerwe on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This weird old sabre-toothed animal lived in what is now Brazil, in the middle Permian, about 260 million years ago. Tiarajudens was an anomodont, that is to say, related to Suminia which I featured here earlier. They were early synapsids, mammal precursors, although the anomodonts were not on the main line of mammalian evolution. Anomodonts might have had fur, but it's likely they were smooth-skinned. This one is amazing for its huge walrus-like teeth, which were so long that it couldn't open its mouth wide enough to clear them. It was not a carnivore, and likely didn't use the tusks for feeding at all. It had biting teeth projecting a bit forward in the front of its jaws, so it could pluck off bits of vegetation, and then chew them with its cheek teeth, including some broad, flat teeth it bore on its palate. The tusks were possibly used for self defense, striking at a predator while keeping its mouth shut, or maybe for fighting for dominance, territory, or access to mates, among the males. (But females might have had tusks too - we so far only have one skull to go on.) Tiarajudens was about the size of a large dog.