Trirachodon
Added 2023-02-05 08:53:43 +0000 UTCAnother very old illustration I did for my Cynognathus Assemblage Zone story. I coloured things with much lighter hues back then, wonder what happened with that?
Anyway, this is a really interesting animal, it was a non-mammalian cynodont that was a social burrowing animal that was known to have lived in large communal underground colonies, making it like the Triassic equivalent of a prairie dog.
Many animals from the same formation are known or speculated to have been burrowers. From their bones we know the environment was highly seasonal and, as shown from fossils that Trirachodon's growth was stunted at periodic regular intervals, food was scarce and life was harsh for half the year. It seems likely that many animals burrowed into the cooler earth to escape the hostile conditions.
