The Kids Were Scarier: Cranial Ornamentation DECREASE With age in Early Triassic Trematosauroid Temnospondyl Benthosuchus?

On the development of surface ornamentation of skull bones in the ontogeny of Early Triassic benthosuchids (Amphibia, Temnospondyli)

Author:

Morkovin

Abstract:

The rate of developmental changes in ornamentation of the dermal skull observed at the submature stages of the trematosauroid Benthosuchus (Amphibia, Temnospondyli) shows a wide range of individual variation divided into two dominant modes. The analysis of this variation based on comparisons within samples of two dermal bones (supratemporal and squamosal) displays that such a bimodality is distinctly expressed at the earliest known growth stage and tends to disappear with age.