Cacops

Cacops aspidephorus · Cacops was a medium-sized, big-headed amphibian-like creature that lived in the early Permian of the United States, with fossils found in Texas and Oklahoma.

It lived about 283.3 to 274.4 million years ago.

Cacops
Photo: Dmitry Bogdanov, CC BY 3.0
Cacops
Photo: Jonathan Chen, CC BY-SA 4.0
Cacops
Photo: Jay Malone from Casselberry, FL, USA, CC BY 2.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAmphibia
OrderTemnospondyli
FamilyDissorophidae
GenusCacops
SpeciesCacops aspidephorus

Where its fossils were found

Texas and Oklahoma, USA.

Fun facts

  • Its name means "ugly look" because of its strange appearance.
  • A famous paleontologist said the mounted skeleton looked almost absurd, with a large head, no neck and a short tail.
  • Cacops had a box-like skull with cheeks set almost at a right angle to the top of the skull.
  • Cacops could probably hear airborne sounds, because it had a large eardrum and a slender stapes bone in its ear.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).