Torpor as a survival strategy for non-mammalian therapsids during a mass extinction

This project aims at providing more reliable evidence regarding burrowing and torpor in therapsids. Therapsids are mammal-reptiles that gave rise to modern mammals. This group survived the End Permian mass extinction event (252Mya) which caused the extinction of 95% of all marine taxa and about 70% of all terrestrial taxa. The event is marked by a rapid increase in global temperature, but a number of therapsids survived. Numerous therapsid fossils from the Karoo Basin of South Africa have been found in burrows, suggesting burrows as possible thermal refugia. Other methods of surviving extreme conditions include torpor (short periods of reduced metabolic activity). This type of behaviour is seen in modern burrowing mammals, and can be studied by looking at the tooth microstructure. The goal of this research is to analyse the dental microstructure of known burrowing therapsids to determine whether they used burrowing and torpor as a survival strategy for this extinction eve