Walking with Dinosaurs: Placerias

Placerias hesternus
Named by Frederic Augustus Lucas, 1904
Diet: Herbivore (It feeds on vegetation mostly on land and in the water)
Type: Synapsid Therapsid/Protomammal (dicynodont)
Size: 11 feet (3.5 meters) long and 1000 kilograms.
Region: North America (Arizona USA)
Age: Late Triassic (228 to 216 million BC; Carnian to Norian)
Enemies: Postosuchus; early dinosaurs such as Chindesaurus; phytosaurs such as Smilosuchus
Episode: New Blood
Info: One of the largest herbivores of the Late Triassic period, the ox-sized Placerias was one of the last of the large therapsids ('protomammals' or 'mammal-like reptiles') that once dominated the Permian period, narrowly survived the devastating Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction Event 252.17 million years ago (though many of them suffered heavy losses), and continued to thrived in the Early Triassic, but had been in decline and faded into oblivion in the Late Triassic as dinosaurs and other archosaurs begin to rise to the top (Note: A recent discovery of whats thought to be a dicynodont was found in Queensland, Australia, dating back to the Mid Cretaceous). More than 40 individuals of Placerias were found in one place southeast of the Petrified Forest National Park in St. John, Arizona.

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