A Barrel of Cute

As promised, the last week before our own little Permian Extinction is going to end on a note that, despite how cute it may not have been in real life, is going to be so cute your face will explode! At least according to the latest computer models of this genus. Again, their are a ton of little species in here, but the genus we'll look at this week is that of Diictodon.

Diictodon ("two weasel toothed") was tiny, by the time's standards, and was about the same size as your average dachshund in length and height. Like a dachshund the Diictodon was an underground loving animal, however, unlike the badger-dog Diictodon lived underground and was an herbivore (whereas a dachshund typically only goes underground to bring out rats, moles, and -yes- badgers).

Diictodon was a Dicynodont (Cynodonts would go on to evolve the first mammalian species whereas Dicynodonts would founder against the competition from early Prosauropods in the Triassic). Dicynodont means "two dog toothed" (Cynodont meaning just "dog teeth") and related to the propensity of genera of Dicynodonts possessing two large tusks in addition to the other canine like teeth of the mouth.