Atopodentatus

Go home triassic, you are drunk. After being super weird for some time Atopodentatus takes a step back and becomes just weird. 
The new specimen reveals the true nature of these crazy jaws and offers a fascinating new lifestyle. 
As the scientists from Scottland, China and the US proposed, Atopodentatus was most likely a semi-aquatic herbivore, feeding on algae on the seafloor in shallow waters. Thanks to the special properties of it's jaws it would be able to pick a bunch of algae from the ground and suck them in by rapidly opening it's mouth.

Because there are already a bunch of pictures online depicting this animal feeding or swimming I wanted my guys resting on a rock, charging power in the sun after nibbling under the waves all morning. I also had sketches of whole colonies of these guys resting on the beach and on rocks, but that would be a little too much

Here a summery of the paper: www.eartharchives.org/articles…
There should  be also a link to the open access paper.

When you want to know more about the strange triassic seas of China have a look here, marine reptiles on LSD: paleopolis.rediris.es/cg/CG200…

Joseph Leidy for scale.

Edit 1: Note the little barnacles on the rock.

Edit 2: As Brian Engh and some other pointed out the idea that Atopodentatus was herbivorous stand on hypothetical paws, the dentition would be also fitting for small invertebrates. Analyses of the teeth in terms of microwaer and maybe isotopes.

Edit 3: Two pages from my sketchbook showing the initial sketch and some other concepts, for example baby Atopodentatus: 
sta.sh/0249mwotme50
sta.sh/023w5q0nbyt0