Question 1

How do you say Mastodonsaurus?

Accepted Answer

You say it like this: mas-TOE-don-SOR-us. Break it into four chunks: MAS, then TOE, then DON, then SOR-us. The stress falls on the second and fourth syllables, so you hit TOE and SOR a little harder than the rest. Once you get those four parts, it rolls off the tongue pretty naturally.

Question 2

What does Mastodonsaurus mean?

Accepted Answer

The name means roughly nipple-toothed lizard, which sounds wild but makes total sense once you know the story. The mastodon part comes from two Greek words, mastos meaning nipple or breast and odon meaning tooth, because its teeth had bumpy, rounded tips similar to the famous mastodon elephant. Saurus comes from the Greek sauros, meaning lizard. So the full name is a description of its unusual teeth.

Question 3

Was Mastodonsaurus a dinosaur?

Accepted Answer

Nope, Mastodonsaurus was not a dinosaur at all. It was an amphibian, which means it is more closely related to modern frogs and salamanders than to any dinosaur or reptile. It belongs to an ancient group called temnospondyls, which were around long before dinosaurs became dominant. Mastodonsaurus just happened to be a truly gigantic one.

Question 4

How big was Mastodonsaurus?

Accepted Answer

Mastodonsaurus could reach up to 6 meters in length, which is about 20 feet. That makes it longer than a large great white shark and one of the biggest amphibians ever to have lived on Earth. Most of that length was concentrated in its massive, flat, wide skull and its thick body. It was genuinely enormous for an amphibian.

Question 5

What did Mastodonsaurus eat?

Accepted Answer

Mastodonsaurus was almost certainly a predator, based on its large size, wide flat skull, and teeth built for gripping rather than chewing. It probably ate fish, smaller amphibians, and possibly young reptiles or archosaurs that came too close to the water. It was an ambush hunter, sitting still in shallow water and striking fast when prey came within range, very much like a giant crocodile in behavior even though it was not related to one.

Question 6

Where did Mastodonsaurus live?

Accepted Answer

Mastodonsaurus lived in what is now Europe, with fossils found in Germany, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Back during the Middle to Late Triassic period, all of these places were part of the supercontinent Pangaea, and the climate was warm and humid near rivers and lakes. Mastodonsaurus was a water creature, so it lived in the swamps, rivers, and floodplains of that ancient world.

Question 7

When did Mastodonsaurus live?

Accepted Answer

Mastodonsaurus first appeared in the fossil record around 244 million years ago, during the Middle Triassic period. It survived all the way until about 201 million years ago, near the end of the Triassic. That means this animal was around for over 40 million years, which is an incredibly long run for any species. It outlasted many of its contemporaries before finally disappearing.

Question 8

Is Mastodonsaurus related to the mastodon elephant?

Accepted Answer

The names sound alike, but Mastodonsaurus and mastodons are not related at all. The connection is purely in the shape of their teeth. Mastodons were large elephant-like mammals with bumpy, rounded molars. When scientists named Mastodonsaurus, they noticed its teeth had a similar knobby shape and borrowed the mastodon part of the name as a comparison. One was a giant amphibian from 230 million years ago, and the other was a mammal from just a few million years ago.

Mastodonsaurus Pronunciation

Mastodonsaurus Picture

What does Mastodonsaurus mean?

Name Roots

Fun Facts

Learn More About Mastodonsaurus

Related Words