in catching prey. The teeth are elongated labio-lingually at their base and opposite, mesiodistally, at their tip. In the middle, they are not elongated either way but instead circular. These dental adaptations enhanced the ability of Anaschisma to capture prey; the teeth are optimized for piercing prey and not allowing it to escape, resisting the bending force applied by the struggling organism, and propagating cracks in the hard parts of the object, such as bone, allowing for easier eating and digestion. Anaschisma had a wide, wedge-shaped, powerful tail to assist it with swimming, hunting and likely defense. It was not long like the crocodiles of today, but more likely short and strong to enable it to quickly spring up from hiding and capture prey before it escapes. The legs of Anaschisma display a sprawling stance and short legs with 4-digits on the front and 5 on the back limbs. Anaschisma likely spent a lot of time motionless, waiting for prey, which these short legs were likely an adaptation to. Paleobiology The hunting style of Anaschisma involved lying at the bottom of a shallow swamp, waiting for a fish, crustacean, smaller amphibian, or even a young phytosaur to wander by. When it spotted prey, it used its huge jaws to engulf and consume them. A few particular adaptations suggest Koskinonodon had this aquatic lifestyle. First, they had lateral lines formed by the sensory sulci. These are useful for detecting changes in water pressure made by the swimming motions of nearby organisms. Their sprawling limbs were also adapted for water. They would not move quickly or efficiently on land, although they may have done it to find another water pool with more food or other resource. Mass graves have been found, thought to be a result of a group of these animals gathering together in a withering water pool during a drought and all perishing because the water was never replenished. Paleoecology They lived mostly in the late Triassic; by the time the Jurassic began, most temnospondyls, Anaschisma included, were gone. It is likely that they went extinct during the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, along with the majority of other large amphibians, the class of Conodonts and 34% of all marine genera. It is unknown what caused this mass extinction; hypotheses include huge volcanic eruptions, climate change, oceanic acidification, or an asteroid impact. It is known, however, that over half of the species