images

Jonkeria

by

Walter B. Myers/Novapix

Reference

t-din00-30031

Date

2014-12-01

12-foot-long 500 pound dinocephalian therapsids of the genus Jonkeria pause in a shallow stream in a dry mid-Permian landscape 262 million years ago in what is today South Africa. Vegetation includes various ferns. Jonkeria was large mammal-like reptile with a stout pig-like build. Paleontologists haven't been able to determine whether Jonkeria was an herbivore, carnivore, or possibly like modern pigs an omnivore.