images

Lycaenops

by

Walter B. Myers/Novapix

Reference

t-din00-20170

Date

2015-01-28

A three-foot-long, 35 pound carnivorous therapsid (mammal-like reptile) of the genus Lycaenops wanders a mountainous mid-Permian landscape 270 million years ago in what is today South Africa. Vegetation includes various ferns forming ground cover and a large cycad.
While reptilian in origin, Lycaenops more resembled a modern wolf with a long and slender skull, wolf-like fangs, and long legs held close to its body which probably enabled it to out-run the small reptiles and dicynodonts it dined on.