Moschops

Moschops (Greek for "calf face") is an extinct genus of therapsid that lived in the Guadalupian epoch, around 265–260 million years ago. Therapsids are synapsids, which were at one time the dominant land animals. Its remains were found in the Karoo region of South Africa.

Description

Moschops was a roughly 2.7-metre-long (8.9 ft), massively built dinocephalian. It had a short, thick and massive head, which was broad across the orbits. Like other members of Tapinocephalidae, the skull had a tiny opening for the pineal organ. The occiput was broad and deep, but the skull was more narrow in the dorsal border. Furthermore, the pterygoid arches and the angular region of the jaw were quite heavy, allowing the insertion of strong jaw muscles. Due to that and because it possessed long-crowned, stout teeth, it is believed that Moschops was a herbivore feeding on nutrient-poor and tough vegetation, like cycad stems. Due to the presumably nutrient-poor food, it very likely had to feed for a very long time. Its anatomy allowed Moschops to open its elbow joint more widely, enabling it to move in a more mammal-like way than the other crawlers in its time. That might have helped it to carry its massive body more easily while feeding. Very likely, most dinocephalians were rather slow-moving animals, but capable of raising themselves, for short bursts. It is also possible that Moschops and other dinocephalians were semiaquatic, given the heavy build and the limbs with their spreading hands and feet. The heavy head could have been useful for diving after food.

Moschops (TV series)

Moschops is a stop motion-animated children's television series produced by FilmFair, and broadcast on ITV in 1983.

The characters in Moschops are designed by Sue Marke. All of the cast are prehistoric animals, except for Flower, who is the world's first flower.

The dinosaur characters' names imply their species or genus. The title character, Moschops, is a young therapsid of the genus Moschops; Ally is a theropod of the genus Allosaurus; Grandfather Diplodocus is a sauropod of the genus Diplodocus; Uncle Rex is a Tyrannosaurus rex; and Mr. Ichthyosaurus is an ichthyosaur. Mrs. Kerry is a ceratopsid of the genus Triceratops.

In the series, Moschops and Ally are friends. They live in a cave with Grandfather Diplodocus and Uncle Rex.

From 1984 to 1985, Omroepvereniging VARA, the Dutch public broadcasting network, broadcast a Dutch-dubbed version titled Knobbel. Channel 4 retransmitted Moschops in 1988.

Episode list

Video releases

Moschops in print

For a short time after the series aired, Pippin featured a Moschops comic strip.