Re: Cretaceous Dicynodonts was Re Triassic mammal-like reptiles?

[K and T Dykes <ktdykes@arcor.de>]

<<IIRC, Temnosdpondyl remains have been found in Cretaceous formations
whereas these critters were previously thought to have long disappeared.>>

Your memory is in fine working order, Jean-Michel, but there is a difference
of degree.  Temnospondyls became unfashionable, and it was thought they'd
gone extinct by about the Middle and then (after some more finds) into the
Upper Jurassic.  Enthusiastic Australian researchers then found
/Koolasuchus/ in the Lower Cretaceous of Flat Rocks, Victoria.  This was
remarkable as it added tens of millions of years to the record.  (I don't
know how many millions of years to be honest, but I'd guess at around 40,
off the top of my head.  Maybe somebody could kindly be more accurate.)

Should the Lower Cretaceous dicynodont be correctly interpreted, (and it
seems to be), this adds more like around 110 million years.  To get some
approximation, imagine going shopping in a place you've never been before,
and somebody's taking their relatively small iguanodontid pet for a walk in
front of your very eyes.  That's the kind of Lazarus lineage required.  On
the face of it, this sounds outrageous, preposterous, bizarre and lots of
other similar words.  It also struck the authors as being the most likely
(and indeed only) viable explanation.