Dinosaurs & Prehistory - Other prehistoric animals - Moschops - Prehistoric life
What was Moschops actually?
Correct!
Although Moschops capensis may seem like an unusual dinosaur at first glance, it was not a dinosaur. Moschops belonged to the therapsids, more precisely to the Dinocephalia. This group of animals belongs to the synapsid line of development, from which mammals later emerged. Moschops lived about 260 million years ago in the Permian, long before the first dinosaurs appeared. Its fossils come from what is now South Africa. The animal was powerfully built and fed on plants. What was particularly noticeable was his extremely strong and thickened skull. Studies of the internal structure of the skull provide evidence of adaptations consistent with head-butting fights between conspecifics, somewhat comparable to today's bighorn sheep.
Moschops was not a dinosaur, but a herbivorous therapsid from the Permian and thus closer to the mammalian lineage.
