Hypercarnivorous Varanopids with Dental Complexity

Tea Maho, MSc student, Reisz Lab, just published another paper, this time in the prestigious Nature Communications

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32621-5

Dental development and replacement rates varied greatly among early terrestrial carnivorous and herbivorous amniotes, revealing a hidden complexity that reflected a diversity of feeding behaviours soon after their initial appearance in the fossil record. The oldest known complex terrestrial vertebrate community included hypercarnivorous varanopids, including Mesenosaurus, and we show that it exhibited exceptionally rapid rates of development and reduced longevity relative to other terrestrial amniotes. In contrast, the coeval large apex predator Dimetrodon greatly increased dental longevity by increasing thickness and massiveness, whereas herbivores greatly reduced tooth replacement rates and increased dental longevity. Insectivores and omnivores represented the primitive condition and maintained modest replacement rates and longevity.