What is the difference between Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus?
Like its more famous relative Dimetrodon, Edaphosaurus had a sail-like fin that was supported by bones of the vertebral column. Edaphosaurus differs from Dimetrodon in having cross-bars on the spines that supported its fin.
Are humans related to Dimetrodon?
As a synapsid, Dimetrodon was distantly related to humans and all other modern mammals. Synapsids were the first tetrapods to evolve differentiated (or heterodont) teeth.
When did the Edaphosaurus go extinct?
Edaphosaurus (/ˌɛdəfoʊˈsɔːrəs/, meaning “pavement lizard” for dense clusters of teeth) is a genus of extinct edaphosaurid synapsids that lived in what is now North America and Europe around 303.4 to 272.5 million years ago, during the late Carboniferous to early Permian periods.
When did the Edaphosaurus exist?
318 million to 271 million years ago
Edaphosaurus, (genus Edaphosaurus), primitive herbivorous relative of mammals that is found in fossil deposits dating from Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian periods (318 million to 271 million years ago).
What did Edaphosaurus look like?
Edaphosaurus was a giant, sail back mammal-like reptilian animals that grew to measure 10 feet (3 m) in length, the size of hippos, and like them, Edaphosaurus were also vegetarians. Edaphosaurus was blue with yellow stripes. Its sail had an eye-shaped pattern on it.
What are Edaphosaurus related to?
Edaphosaurus was a pelycosaur (early Synapsida) that lived during the later Carboniferous and early Permian. It was a herbivorous relative of the well-known Dimetrodon. Both had a large, thermal regulating sail on the back. Fossils of Edaphosaurus have been found in Europe and North America.
Is Dimetrodon a mammal or reptile?
Although it looks superficially like a dinosaur, dimetrodon was actually a type of prehistoric reptile known as a pelycosaur, and it lived during the Permian period, 50 million years or so before the first dinosaurs had even evolved.
Who discovered Edaphosaurus?
Edward Drinker Cope
Edaphosaurus lived in Germany and North America during the Early Permian Era around 280 – 260 million years ago. It was arguably the largest herbivore in its time and region. It was first discovered by Edward Drinker Cope in 1882.
Is the Edaphosaurus a reptile?
Edaphosaurus (name meaning “Pavement Lizard”) is a genus of edaphosaurid synapsid that originated during the Early Permian Era in what is now North America and Europe. Measuring 3 meters long and weighing 300 kilos, this hippo-sized sail-back mammal-like reptilian herbivore was the first plant-eating reptile to evolve.
What were two possible functions of the sails on the backs of the Pelycosaurs?
At least two pelycosaur clades independently evolved a tall sail, consisting of elongated vertebral spines: the edaphosaurids and the sphenacodontids. In life, this would have been covered by skin, and likely functioned as a thermoregulatory device or as a mating display.
Is Dimetrodon a mammal?
Dimetrodon is an early member of a group called synapsids, which include mammals and many of their extinct relatives, though it is not an ancestor of any mammal (which appeared millions of years later). As a synapsid, Dimetrodon is more closely related to mammals than to dinosaurs or any living reptile.
What kind of animal was the Edaphosaurus?
Cope classified Edaphosaurus as a member of his Pelycosauria and created the new family Edaphosauridae. The type material did not include any of the post-cranial skeleton apart from an axis vertebra and Cope was unaware of the animal’s large sail, a feature then known only for Dimetrodon .
When did Edward Drinker Cope name The Edaphosaurus?
Edward Drinker Cope named and described Edaphosaurus (“pavement lizard”) in 1882, based on a crushed skull and a left lower jaw from the Texas Red Beds. He noted in particular the “dense body of teeth” on both the upper and lower jaws, and used the term “dental pavement” in a table in his description.
When was the Edaphosaurus novomexicanus first discovered?
In 1913, Samuel Wendell Williston and Case described the new species Edaphosaurus novomexicanus from a fairly complete specimen unearthed in New Mexico in 1910, in which a sailbacked Naosaurus -type skeleton was found with a small Edaphosaurus -type skull. The older generic name Edaphosaurus Cope, 1882 became the valid one.
Where did the name pogonias come from for an Edaphosaurus?
The type species name pogonias means “bearded” in Greek, referring to the enlarged inward sloping chin on the lower jaw. Cope classified Edaphosaurus as a member of his Pelycosauria and created the new family Edaphosauridae.