Cabarzia Temporal range:
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Illustration of the holotype fossil | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Family: | †Varanopidae |
Subfamily: | †Mycterosaurinae |
Genus: | †Cabarzia Spindler, Werneberg, & Schneider, 2019 |
Type species | |
† Cabarzia trostheidei Spindler, Werneberg, & Schneider, 2019
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Cabarzia is an extinct genus of varanopid from the Early Permian of Germany. It contains only a single species, Cabarzia trostheidei, which is based on a well-preserved skeleton found in red beds of the Goldlauter Formation. Cabarzia shared many similarities with Mesenosaurus romeri (a varanopid from Russia), although it did retain some differences, such as more curved claws, a wide ulnare, and muscle scars on its sacral ribs. With long, slender hindlimbs, a narrow body, an elongated tail, and short, thick forelimbs, Cabarzia was likely capable of running bipedally to escape from predators, a behavior shared by some modern lizards. It is the oldest animal known to have adaptations for bipedal locomotion, predating Eudibamus, a bipedal bolosaurid parareptile from the slightly younger Tambach Formation.[1]