This scene is based on fossils from the Geraldine Bonebed from the Early Permian Nocona Formation of Texas.
The sail-backed synapsid Edaphosaurus boanerges munches on the horsetail relative Sphenophyllum oblongifolium. In spite of its reptilian appearance, Edaphosaurus is more closely related to mammals. Edaphosaurids were one of the first tetrapod groups to become dedicated herbivores.
In the foreground several individuals of the spiny-headed terrestrial temnospondyl Zatrachys serratus come to the water’s edge to begin their courtship rituals. I am showing one male using an inflatable nasal sac to amplify its call; both sac and calling are speculative, but the speculation is based on the fact that zatrachydids possessed a very large fontanelle in the snout between the nostrils.
A juvenile of the embolomere Archeria crassidisca approaches the shallows from the right. This long-bodied aquatic tetrapod was common in earliest Permian strata of North America; it was one of the last members of its group.