''Deltavjatia'' was a pareiasauromorph

procolophonoid Procolophonoidea is an extinct superfamily of procolophonian parareptiles. Members were characteristically small, stocky, and lizard-like in appearance. Fossils have been found worldwide from many continents including Antarctica. The first memb ...

from the Tatarian stage of the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

time period. It had a large body of about in length. ''Deltavjatia'' was an

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

and lived in what is now

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The first specimen of ''Deltavjatia'' was a specimen of a skull and lower

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

(PIN 2212/1), found in the Urpalov Formation in

Kotelnich Kotelnich (russian: Коте́льнич; chm, Кäкшäр) is a river port town in Kirov Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Vyatka River near its confluence with the Moloma, along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, southwe ...

Vyatka River The Vyatka (; rus, Вя́тка, p=ˈvʲatkə; tt-Cyrl, Нократ, translit=Noqrat; chm, Виче, Viče; udm, Ватка, Vatka) is a river in Kirov Oblast and the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, a right tributary of the Kama.

. Since then, numerous mostly complete skeletons have been found, many of them being so well preserved due to the silty, anaerobic environment of the Kotelnich deposits that fossilised white blood cells are able to be distinguished in them. Analyses of the bone histology of ''Deltavjatia'' show that they grew very rapidly during the early stages of their ontogeny but that their growth rate drastically slowed down once they reached approximately half of their full body size. Deltavjatia vjatkensis

''Deltavjatia'' was placed as a

subtaxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

Pareiasaur Pareiasaurs (meaning "cheek lizards") are an extinct clade of large, herbivorous parareptiles. Members of the group were armoured with scutes which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Permian, ...

idae by M.S.Y. Lee in 1997.

References

External links

Pareiasauridae
Pareiasaurs Permian reptiles Extinct animals of Russia Fossil taxa described in 1937 Prehistoric reptile genera {{permian-reptile-stub

See also

References

External links