Dimetrodon Vertebra 17.5mm Pre- Dinosaur Permian Texas Red Beds TX COA 6429 for Sale

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Dimetrodon Vertebra 17.5mm Pre- Dinosaur Permian Texas Red Beds TX COA 6429 For Sale

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Dimetrodon Vertebra 17.5mm Pre- Dinosaur Permian Texas Red Beds TX COA 6429:
$49.95

Welcome to Pioneer Fossils!

A Certificate of Authenticity, which has a color photo onit of the exact item you purchased, will accompany the specimen. Also, a small color picture of a Dimetrodon.

Here is a nice rare fossil vertebra bone section from a Dimetrodon, fromthe early Permian, between 295 to 272 million years ago. From the Texas Red Beds, Archer County,Texas. The last Dimetrodon becameextinct 40 million years before the first dinosaur.

It measures about 17.5mm using calipers.

No paint or restoration has been applied.

Dimetrodon was a distant cousin (but cousin nonetheless)to Edaphosaurus, which lived from the Pennsylvanian to the Permian, 303 to 272million years ago. Many of both speciesare from the Texas Red Beds and Oklahoma.

Edaphosaurus fossil bones can be purchased separately.

In the 1940’s, Rudolph Zallinger, an art student at YaleUniversity was asked to paint a mural (fresco)“The Age of Reptiles” in the Great Hall of Yale’s Peabody Museum. He hadto choose which plants and animals to feature in his 110 foot mural. For hisPermian part of the mural, he chose two “sail-back” reptiles to represent it.These animals are Edaphosaurus, and Dimetrodon. They look similar to eachother, with each having a large “sail” on its back.

Both Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon had large sail backs,perhaps for heat regulation. However, Dimetrodon’s sail was formed aroundelongated neural spines that projected from the vertebrae, held together withskin. Edaphosaurus’ sail also had smallhorizontal cross-bars on the spines.

Neither animal was a dinosaur, both dying out about 40million years before the first dinosaur. Both were non-mammal synapsids(pelycosaurs), both walked with shortlegs similar to a crocodile.

Dimetrodon was the apex predator, with some large sharpteeth in its mouth. Edaphosaurus had teeth more suited to crushing andgrinding, and it probably ate plants, insects, and possibly mollusks.

Edaphosaurus grew to about 11.5 feet, while the largestDimetrodon reached 15 feet. The head of the Edaphosaurus was quite a bitsmaller than the head of a Dimetrodon.

Both Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon had a single largeopening on each side of the back of the skull, linking them to mammals. Dinosaurs generally had zero or two suchholes.

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