Imagine a reptilian pig with a hammerhead, no visible ears, and a parrot-like beak, and you'll have a pretty good mental picture of a rhynchosaur.
Rhynchosaurs were herbivores that in some fossil localities account for 40 to 60% of the specimens found, making them the most abundant plant eaters on land. They were reptiles with stocky bodies and a powerful beak.
Early forms were small, less than a meter long, and typically lizard-like in build. They had narrow, wedge-shaped skulls with a few small, blunt teeth for eating plants.
Later versions grew up to two meters in length. The skull in these later forms were short, broad and triangular, becoming much wider than long, giving them a somewhat hammer-head appearance, although the eyes were set close together, near the top of the beak. The broad skull accommodated powerful jaw muscles that enabled the rhynchosaurs to cut up tough plant material. The teeth were modified into broad tooth plates, and the lower jaw fit into a groove on the upper jaw, enabling the ‘cutting’ of plant fibers.
The hind feet were equipped with massive claws, presumably for digging up roots and tubers, although digging claws are usually found on the front feet. Like many animals of their time, they spread all across Pangea, and thus across the world.
And that seems to about all there is to say about the rhynchosaurs. They lived during the Triassic era (251 to 199 million years ago), dying out just before herbivore dinosaurs appeared.
I think I would have found rhynchosaurs terrifying, particularly the larger ones, even though they were basically reptilian cows or deer. Let’s face it, the larger ones were as long as a man is tall, and who’s to say they wouldn’t try munching on this new plant called human that invaded their space, even if it didn’t sit still like other plants?
What do you think? If you had a time machine, would you venture back to visit them up close and personal?
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/taxa/verts/archosaurs/rhynchosauria.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhynchosaur
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