Njalila
Name: Njalila.
Phonetic: Ny-al-el-lah.
Named By: Gebauer - 2007.
Synonyms: Dixeya nasuta.
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Therapsida, Gorgonopsidae.
Species: N. nasuta (type),
N. insigna.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Unavailable.
Known locations: Tanzania - Manda Beds Formation.
Time period: Anisian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Skull of at least two
individuals.
Njalila
is a genus of gorgonopsid
therapsid
that lived in Africa during the mid
Triassic. Njalila is not known by many fossils,
but we can observe
that the genus had relatively short jaws but also narrow skull
proportions. It is quite probable that Njalila
was a niche predator,
perhaps mostly hunting smaller animals.
Living
in the early part of what is known as the Mid Triassic, Njalila
was
one of the last gorgonopsids genera to exist, with most others
appearing only in the Permian. This is mostly because the end of the
Permian is marked by the largest extinction event that we know to ever
affect the planet wiping out most of the established animal life. As
the Triassic went on, larger archosaurs became the top predators,
until eventually they themselves were replaced by the early Dinosaurs.
Further reading
- Die Theriodontier des ostafrikanischen Ruhuhu-Gebietes in der
T�binger Sammlung. - Neues Jahrbuch f�r Geologie und Pal�ontologie
92: 47–136. - F. von Huene - 1950.
- Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference
to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?'
parringtoni) [Ph.D. thesis]. - T�bingen: Eberhard-Karls
Universit�t T�bingen. pp. 1–316. E. V. I. Gebauer -
2007.
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