Friday Dead Animal Blogging
1:55 am
Sphenacodont Edition
With the latest changes to the Hairy Museum’s layout, it seems like a good time to try our own take on what’s become an Internet tradition—Friday animal blogging. And based on the experiences detailed here, our inaugural Dead Animal Blogging will feature those lovable Permian scamps, the Sphenacodonts.
The Sphenacodonts, or “Wedge Teeth” were a very successful group of animals that first evolved around 300 million years ago. Most people are already familiar with at least one member of this distinguished group—the sailbacked Dimetrodon.
Dimetrodon was undoubtedly one of the showiest members of the group, easily identified by the tall sail running down its back, which was likely either used for display or temperature control (or both). In fact, it could be said that the sail really is what makes Dimetrodon, because its close relative, Sphenacodon, is practically identical in every way except that its back has a ridge instead of a sail.
Although they differ in their dorsal decoration, all sphenacodonts have one thing in common: big fanglike teeth. All sphenacodonts were predators—in fact, animals like Sphenacodon and Dimetrodon were the first vertebrates to become large (2–3 meters long) terrestrial predators. Before them, the only carnivores were semiaquatic or small or both. Sphenacodonts created the niche that would later be filled by lions, tigers, and tyrannosaurs.
And if all that wasn’t impressive enough, its a good bet that you’ve got a sphenacodont somewhere in your family tree. The evolutionary line that led to mammals went right through the Sphenacodontia. The big, showy models like Dimetrodon were probably a little too specialized to be on the main branch of mammal evolution, but even the smallest, most conservative sphenacdonts were sharp-toothed predators. Just go back 300,000,000 years and we were all wedge-toothed terrors with big fangs and strong jaws, scampering into a whole new world of limitless potential.
[...] n packing several different sizes and shapes of teeth into our mouths almost since we were sphenacodonts*, dinosaurs (and most other reptiles) generally made do with o [...]
I have always been interested in this group of animals especially the rare and ignored Ctenospondylus and its appearance in the fossil record. I have tried to find someone who could tell me abit more about this creature and its neighbors. I was going to do some drawings of this oddball but cant find any real info on it other than ” its simular to Dimetrodon ” but what species of Dimetrodon ? Who was he eating? What was the environment like? alot of these things have been never really given a clear light to the outside of research realm other than some older papers and alot of thought.Like the sphenacodons most of the conditions of the ctenospondylus are\were unknown artistic wise, definately on the animal itself and its different permo-carbon environment.