File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972532560).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo14amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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140 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL saurus. These form the group of the Dinocephalians and of these there are a number of nearly complete skeletons in the Broom Collection — the only dino- cephalian skeletons at present known. Moschops is a heavily-built form with powerful walking limbs and relatively small head. Another much larger form called Tapinocephalus is represented by the fore limbs and the shoulder girdles. It might be supposed that Tapinocepha- lus and Pareiasaurus were much too large to have been troubled with enemies In the shales at Beaufort West we have representatives of the fauna that proba- bly lived a quarter of a million years later than Pareiasaurus. The large herbi- vores we now meet with are the Endo- thiodons (illustrated in the December, 1913, Journal), and with them are abundant representatives of the small Dicynodons. Like Pareiasaurus these later forms are heavily-built slow-moving forms which possibly for protection also dug their way into the muddy banks. They fed on the vegetation that flour-
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Front view of the skulls, Endothiodon uniserie; difference in the mode of closing of the beaks but we have reason to believe that like most later herbivorous forms there were carnivores that preyed upon them. They are at present however very im- perfectly known. One called Tiiano- suchus is known by part of the jaws and was certainly large enough to have killed and devoured even the mighty Pareia- saurus and Tapinocephalus. With these giant forms there are a number of small carnivores, and the beginnings of the tortoise-beaked mammal-like reptiles which are better known in the later beds. Owen and Dicynodon mosc/iops Broom, to show the ished at the sides of the rivers and on the inundated plains. Dicynodon resembled Endothiodon in many ways but differed in having in the male a pair of tusks. The small Dicynodons must have been very abundant as in many places num- erous skulls can be picked up but curi- ously enough complete skeletons are rare. Often two or three skulls are found to- gether in the shale without any other bones of the skeleton being near and isolated limb bones and vertebrse may be picked up in the deposit. The reason

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