Placerias

By the Late Triassic, the land ecosystem had recovered from extinction. Herd of dicynodonts moved through groves and tall confiers, cutting up tough needles and branches and slicing through the fronds of cycad-like plants. Our Placerias shows the classic two-tusker design: its beak resembled a high-powered combination of parror and giant snapping turtle. Dicynodonts like Placerias were efficient leaf-eaters, even though they had no molar teeth for chewing. Insetad, they used their beaks to shear through the toughest plant fibers. Placerias' body design was similar to a modern-day duck-billed platypus. In fact, Placerias was prpbably warm blooded and may have had hair. All dicynodonts were advanced early mammal ancestors.