An international team of paleontologists suggests dimetrodon – a 4-m-long prehistoric reptile that lived during the early Permian period, between 295 million and 272 million years ago, and went extinct about 40 million years before the appearance of first dinosaurs – was the first terrestrial vertebrate to develop serrated ziphodont teeth.

Dimetrodon was the top of the terrestrial food chain in the early Permian and is considered to be the forerunner of mammals.

According to a new study reported in the journal Nature Communications, dimetrodons had a diversity of previously unknown tooth structures and were also the first terrestrial vertebrate to develop cusps – teeth with raised points on the crown, which are dominant in mammals.

The study also suggests ziphodont teeth were confined to later species of dimetrodon, indicating a gradual change in feeding habits.

“This research is an important step in reconstructing the structure of ancient complex communities,” said senior author Prof Robert Reisz from the University of Toronto Mississauga.

“Teeth tell us a lot more about the ecology of animals than just looking at the skeleton.”

“We already know from fossil evidence which animals existed at that time but now with this type of research we are starting to piece together how the members of these communities interacted.”

Prof Reisz and his co-author, Kirstin Brink from the University of Toronto Mississauga, studied the changes in dimetrodon teeth across 25 million years of evolution.

The analysis indicated the changes in tooth structure occurred in the absence of any significant evolution in skull morphology. This indicates a change in feeding style and trophic interactions.

______

Kirstin S. Brink & Robert R. Reisz. 2014. Hidden dental diversity in the oldest terrestrial apex predator Dimetrodon. Nature Communications 5, article number: 3269; doi: 10.1038/ncomms4269