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. …
Tag Archives: paleoart
Perry
The Permian was the last period of the Paleozoic Era; it ended with the most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history. This period was a time of great diversification and experimentation by a number of plant and animal clades, only a few of which made it through the great extinction to be the founders of …
Seymouria sanjuanensis
Here’s another colored-pencil-on-colored-paper drawing; this time it’s a reconstruction of a long-extinct animal. Seymouria sanjuanensis was a tetrapod that lived during the early Permian period, more than 270 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, and other newcomers had arrived on the scene. It was a stocky little lizard-like creature about two feet …