The desert was this creature’s domain.
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In the past, the animal lived in Niger, which was an arid place at the time.
Their study was recently published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Analysis also revealed that the Bunostegos retained some primitive characteristics that are present in older reptiles but not found in other pareisaurs. However, pareiasaurs usually boasted limbs that extended from the side of the body, then curved downwards at the elbow.
Rather, like modern lizards and crocodiles, they moved in what researchers call a sprawling stance. The first of these is the shoulder joint, which faced down in a way that the humerus would be vertically oriented underneath.
It might be that Bunostegos akokanensis was quite a sight, what with its oversized body and its bony armor, but it’s not its looks that paleontologists are quite fascinated with. It would restrict the humerus from sticking out to the side. The pre-reptile’s elbow also differed from sprawler’s in that it was more like a human knee – with a limited range of motion, capable of only swinging back and forth.
For the long journeys between meals, Turner said, the upright posture might have been necessary for survival. “That is unique”, Turner said.
Other evidence appears to suggest that because of the Permian’s geography, the Bunostegos lived largely by itself in an extremely arid habitat.
Scientists have first discovered Bunostegos back in 2003 after discovering its knobby skull buried deep in the Sahara Desert of northern Niger. “Bunostegos is much further back on the evolutionary tree than anything else that exhibits this posture [and] hints at a larger story about posture and locomotion evolution”.
‘Posture, from sprawling to upright, is not black or white, but instead is a gradient of forms, ‘ Turner said.
And the more we learn about this animal, the more we learn about evolution from almost the beginning of all legged creatures overall.
She was involved with analyzing the creature’s bones while studying at the University of Washington, and is now a graduate student at Brown University.
One of the researchers in the study said that upright posture with the legs beneath the body in both forelimb and hindlimb in one animal is not seen until a long time later in dinosaurs and mammals.
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