Dinosaur Relative Antarctanax Lived In Antarctica After Biggest Mass Extinction

Dead Things iconDead Things
By Gemma Tarlach
Jan 31, 2019 8:01 AMOct 10, 2019 8:46 PM
“The midnight sun over Early Triassic Antarctica.” Along the banks of a river, three archosaur inhabitants of the denseVoltziaconifer forest cross paths:Antarctanax shackletonisneaks up on an early titanopetraninsect,Prolacertalazes on a log, and an enigmatic large archosaur pursues two unsuspecting dicynodonts,Lystrosaurus maccaigi.© Adrienne Stroup, Field Museum
In the wake of the end-Permian mass extinction, the greatest die-off known, Antarctica was a land of rivers and lush conifer forests teeming with animals, as shown in this artist rendering of newly described Antarctanax shackletoni on the hunt (foreground). (Credit: Adrienne Stroup/Field Museum)

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A dinosaur relative about the size of an iguana, which lived at the bottom of the world 250 million years ago, is throwing paleontologists for a loop. Antarctanax shackletoni, named for explorer Ernest Shackleton, hints at unexpected biodiversity on the now-frozen continent of Antarctica.

About 252 million years ago, the greatest mass extinction known walloped life on Earth. An estimated 90 percent of all living things perished. In the wake of this event, known as the end-Permian or Great Dying, surviving species diversified to occupy all those newly vacant ecological niches.

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