Moss Chops: Friday Creature Feature
By My son has a dino app on his iPad which bafflingly includes an animated vignette featuring two Moschops.
Now, before we go any further, I should say that I had never heard of Moschops and had no idea how to pronounce the word “Moschops.” In my head I was saying “Moh-shops.” Nopechops, it’s pronounced “moss-chops.” Which bummed me out because it robbed me of the title I had planned for this entry: “Moschops, Mo’ Problems.” I’m still feeling pretty bitter about it.
Anyway, Moschops are, yup NOT DINOSAURS. They came WAY before dinosaurs, but after Dimetrodon (which kinda surprises me, ‘cuz it looks more blobby and indistinct than Dimetrodon). Wiki, take it away:
“Moschops (Greek for “calf face”) is an extinct genus of therapsid that lived in the Guadalupian epoch, around 265–260 million years ago.
Moschops was a roughly 2.7-metre-long (9 ft), massively built dinocephalian. It has a short, thick and massive head, which is broad across the orbits.”
Wow. Go home, Mother Nature–you’re drunk.