Lystrosaurus was a type of small 'reptilian hippopotamus'. With its barrel-like body, short
tail and stubby limbs it probably spent its time wading in shallow water. Here it would feed
on lush aquatic foliage that it pulled up and gathered into its mouth using the paired tusks
projecting from the upper jaw. The distribution of fossils from this dicynodont (see also
Diictodon, opposite) encompasses southern Africa, Russia, China and India, and in 1960
its remains were also discovered in Antarctica. This is compelling evidence for the union
of most of these landmasses at the time - the Permian Period - into the one great southern
supercontinent known