Scientists have found fossils of a mammal cousin giant and toothless – Quartz

Scientists suspect that they are as big as elephants and that they are edentulous and that they are as big as a rhinoceros and a turtle. They are Lisowicia bojani, a reptile resembling a mammal that walked alongside dinosaurs during the Triassic Period about 200 million years ago.

Researchers from the University of Uppsala in Sweden have published this week a study in the journal Science detailing the creature, which was restored from about 1,000 fossilized bones discovered during the year. a paleontological excavation in Poland. They weighed about 1.5 tons, they measured, and measured about 4.5 meters (14.7 feet) long.

The discovery of Lisowicia bojani is important because it changes the way scientists think about dicynodonts, herbivores that have survived the massive extinction of the Permian that killed more than 96% of marine species and about 70% of terrestrial life. And while they managed to overcome these difficulties, it was thought that dicynodontes had weakened as the dinosaurs rose – the kind of people we commonly recognize today. But by testing the bones found in Poland, paleontologists discovered that these creatures were probably wandering the planet about 10 million years later than expected.

The name "dicynodont" means "two dog teeth" and refers to the animal's tusks that look like canines. These animals also had a mouth that looked like a beak, a bit like a turtle.

"The discovery of Lisowicia changes our ideas about the latest history of dicynodonts," said researcher Tomasz Sulej in a statement. "This also raises many more questions about what makes them so great and the dinosaurs so great."

The new study provides an update of ongoing excavations in southern Poland that began in 2006. Researchers visited this state-of-the-art site and began finding fossils in less than 15 minutes. In just 11 years they have compiled a detailed picture of Lisowicia bojani.