Euparkeria capensis

Euparkeria capensis from Wikipedia

Name: Euparkeria capensis [Parker's good animal of the Cape]

When: Early Triassic Period, about 247 million years ago

Where: Aliwal North, East Cape Province, South Africa

Claim to fame: The iguana-sized Euparkeria has been a touchstone and standard reference for our understanding of the evolution of archosaurs - descendants of the last common ancestor of crocodilians and birds for over a century. It is probably our closest well-known approximation of what that croc-bird common ancestor looked like and how it lived. Indeed, it has been sort of a Rorschach Test onto which researchers have placed their hopes and preconceptions, having been described as both sprawling and lizard-like in its locomotion and as capable of running bipedally. Recent research comes down in the middle, suggesting that Euparkeria usually walked as a semi-erect quadruped, but didn't pull its legs beneath its body.

The specimens studied in the twentieth century were small, with skulls no more than 10 cm in length. For several decades, it was suspected that they were juveniles. The 15 cm skull of my piece is based on recent work in which the size of the adult was extrapolated from incomplete adult remains. In response to recent research, I managed to tuck Euparkeria's significant teeth behind proper lips.