{{Short description|Extinct genus of therapsids}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = Capitanian, {{fossilrange|265|260}} | image = Ulemosaurus svijagensis Riabinin. Музей естественной истории РТ. Кремль. Казань. Январь 2014 - panoramio.jpg | image_caption = Skull of ''Ulemosaurus svijagensis'' | image_upright = 1.2 | display_parents = 2 | taxon = Ulemosaurus | authority = Rjabinin, 1938 | type_species = ''Ulemosaurus svijagensis'' | type_species_authority = Riabinin, 1938 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = {{bold species list | {{extinct}}U. svijagensis |Riabinin, 1938 | {{extinct}}U. gigas|(Efremov 1954)}}<ref>{{cite web |title=†Ulemosaurus gigas Efremov 1954 |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=139389 |website=PBDB}}</ref> }}
'''''Ulemosaurus''''' is an extinct genus of dinocephalian therapsids that lived 265 to 260 million years ago, at Isheevo in Russian Tatarstan. It was a tapinocephalid, a group of bulky herbivores which flourished in the Middle Permian. ''Ulemosaurus'' and other tapinocephalians disappeared at the end of the Middle Permian.
==Description== [[File:Ulemosaurus BW.jpg|thumb|left|Digital painting of ''Ulemosaurus svijagensis'' by Nobu Tamura.]] Only several partial skeletons and skulls have been found. ''Ulemosaurus'' grew to {{convert|4-5|m|ft}} in length and weighed up to {{convert|1|t|lb}}.<ref>{{cite web | title=Ulemosaurus. Подробное описание экспоната, аудиогид, интересные факты. Официальный сайт Artefact | url=https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/ulemozavr }}</ref> The skull bones are extremely dense: about {{convert|10|cm|in}} at its thickest. This thickening is possibly related to head-butting behavior, as some researchers suggest. The species is considered a herbivore, but because the mandible is heavily constructed some palaeontologists consider it a carnivore, with the species being able to use muscle power to cut prey up with its incisors.
==Classification== ''Ulemosaurus'' is a large ''Moschops''-like form from Russia. Despite its advanced characteristics, it lived slightly before the Karoo forms, showing that the Moschopines, and indeed the Tapinocephalidae in general, had already attained their acme by early Capitanian time.
==See also== * List of therapsids
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book | first1 = Patricia | last1 = Vickers-Rich | first2 = Thomas H. | last2 = Rich | title = The Great Russian Dinosaurs | publisher = Monash Science Centre | location = Clayton | year = 1993 | page = 35 | isbn = 978-0-7326-0503-2 }} *Riabinin, A. N., 1938. Vertebrate fauna from the Upper Permian deposits of the Sviaga basin: 1. A new Dinocephalian, Ulemosaurus sviagensi n. gen. n. sp: Ezheg. Muz. Akad. F. N. Chernysheva, v. 1, p. 4–40.
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20051126191459/http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/metazoa/deuterostoma/chordata/Synapsida/Dinocephalia/Tapinocephalia_1.htm Taxonomy] *[http://faculty.evansville.edu/de3/b39902/PPoint/PermioTriassic/tsld005.htm Dinocephalians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051123210937/http://faculty.evansville.edu/de3/b39902/Ppoint/PermioTriassic/tsld005.htm |date=2005-11-23 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060318154122/http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/400Therapsida/650.html Therapsida: Tapinocephalia: Tapinocephalidae] *[http://www.mathematical.com/dinosulemosaurus.html Dinosulemosaurus] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070316051516/http://www.kheper.net/evolution/therapsida/Tapinocephalidae.htm Tapinocephalidae]
{{Dinocephalia}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q241603}}
Category:Tapinocephalia Category:Prehistoric therapsid genera Category:Guadalupian synapsids of Europe Category:Extinct animals of Russia Category:Fossil taxa described in 1938 Category:Capitanian genus first appearances Category:Capitanian genus extinctions Category:Capitanian life