Solenodonsaurus was likely best adapted to life on land, as opposed to living in an aquatic environment like many other early tetrapods. The limbs and pelvis are incomplete in all known specimens of
Solenodonsaurus, making it difficult to infer how the animal may have moved. One feature that suggests a terrestrial lifestyle is the 90° rotation of the ends of the
humerus, which orients the forelimb forward rather than out to the side. Several presumably terrestrial groups of Paleozoic tetrapods, including
amphibamid temnospondyls,
microsaurs, and the first
amniotes, have a similar degree of rotation in their humeri. The short, triangular shape of the skull of
Solenodonsaurus distinguishes it from most aquatic forms, which have either long and narrow or broad and parabolic heads.
Solenodonsaurus was once believed to have had an
impedance matching hearing system like those of modern tetrapods, with an eardrum-like membrane called a
tympanum that covered a notch in the
squamosal bone at the back of the skull. Evidence for a tympanum is seen in a ridge that runs along the squamosal notch, which may have been an attachment point for the membrane. However, since the otic notch is very small, the presence of a tympanum is now considered unlikely. ==Phylogeny==