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Moschops (meaning "Calf eye") was a large, plant-eating animal that lived over 250 million years ago, during the late Permian period. This herding animal lived and went extinct before the dinosaurs evolved. It may have been preyed upon by carnivorous therapsids, like Titanosuchus and Lycaenops. Fossils of Moschops have been found in South Africa. Moschops was named by Broom in 1911.
Diet: Moschops was an herbivore (plant-eater). It had blunt, chisel-like teeth in large jaws.
Anatomy: Moschops was a bulky quadruped (it walked on four legs); the front legs were sprawling but the rear legs were more column-like. It was about 16 feet (5 m) long and had a barrel-like chest. Moschops had a massive, thick skull (about 4 inches=10 cm thick) and may have engaged in head-butting (like modern-day rams).
Classification: Subclass Synapsida, Order Therapsida (advanced synapsids and ancestors of mammals), Suborder Tapinocephalidae, Genus Moschops.
