Scutosaurus is a pareiasaurid procolonomorph reptile from the Lopingian of Russia. It was officially named in 1930 by Hartmann-Weinberg. It was the largest pareiasaur to exist, as well as one of the last ones to exist.
Physiology[]
Scutosaurus had the generic pareiasaur build, with 4 stout legs, a short tail, a broad, bulky body, and a relatively small head. However, unlike other pareiasaurs, which walked with a sprawling gait, it walked with an erect gait. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin, with crocodile-like scutes running down its back and lying in some other places of its body.
Diet[]
Scutosaurus was an herbivore, feeding on leaves. Its leaf-shaped teeth were used to process vegetation; behind its jaws, it had a second set of teeth for processing them even further.
Ecology[]
As a pareiasaur, Scutosaurus would have been a slow, clumsy, and mostly harmless animal, relying on its hard body armor to protect itself from predators like Inostrancevia; in addition to its armored hide, it also had a thick skeleton and strong neck muscles. As well as this, it walked at a more erect gait than most pareiasaurs; however, it would have been a slow runner, as its bulk would have impeded its movement. As a desert animal, Scutosaurus had to wander a lot in order to find large bodies of water with plenty of fresh plant life to eat; in addition to this, it would have either lived a solitary lifestyle or moved in small herds in order to not completely strip plants of their leaves. Finally, Scutosaurus babies had an initially very quick growth rate that tapered off after they reached 75% of their full size; this sudden change in growth rate could have possibly signaled sexual maturity.
In popular culture[]
Scutosaurus was featured in the 3rd episode of the 2005 documentary Walking with Monsters, where an old male individual gets killed by an Inostrancevia. As well as this, it is depicted as living in large herds and carelessly consuming everything that it is able to eat; this functions as a detriment to all the other desert denizens.