Page 55 - The Dinosaur Book and Other Wonders of the Prehistoric World (DK-Smithsonian)
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Spinoaequalis
Rise of the reptiles
Spinoaequalis lived in water but
was only partly aquatic—it
returned to dry land to breed.
Hyperodapedon
The feet were well
suited to life on land.
The piglike, plant-eating
Hyperodapedon had a
razor-sharp beak.
Like modern crocodiles,
Mesosaurus hunted in
the water.
Stagonolepis
Westlothiana
Related to the ancestors of
dinosaurs, this armored Triassic
reptile ate a wide variety of food.
as Spinoaequalis and Mesosaurus, which included a variety of plant-eaters like
would ultimately give rise to lizards, snakes, the armored Scutosaurus as well as
and crocodiles. This new type of vertebrate sharp-toothed hunters. Some survived the
was ideally equipped to colonize dry land during catastrophic mass extinction at the end of
the Permian Period—an age of huge deserts that the Permian and became the ancestors
began 299 million years ago. Permian reptiles of the dinosaurs. 53
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