Overview
- Researchers report in Nature Ecology & Evolution that a 307-million-year-old pantylid ‘microsaur’ is among the earliest land vertebrates with clear adaptations for herbivory, based on a skull found in a fossilized tree stump on Cape Breton Island by Brian Hebert.
- High-resolution scans and 3D reconstruction uncovered palatal and coronoid tooth fields plus large muscle chambers for chewing tough plants, with wear facets identified using electron microscopy supporting a grinding bite.
- Tyrannoroter heberti is interpreted as a stocky, football-sized stem amniote that likely supplemented a primarily plant-based diet with insects or small animals.
- Re-examination of older pantylid material revealed similar dental adaptations dating to roughly 318 million years ago, indicating herbivory arose earlier and likely evolved independently in multiple early tetrapod lineages.
- Only the skull is known, so body form and evolutionary placement remain partly inferred, and the authors suggest—without claiming proof—that specialized plant eaters may have been vulnerable during the late Carboniferous rainforest collapse.