Dimetrodon
die-MET-ro-don
- featured
Although it has a sailed back similar to many dinosaurs, Dimetrodon is actually a primitive synapsid dating back to the Early Permian period, around 290 million years ago – before the existence of even the earliest dinosaurs! The name Dimetrodon means ‘two measures of teeth’, in reference to this apex predator’s razor-sharp teeth that it used to grab and tear flesh from its prey.
Discovery
The first Dimetrodon fossils were described in 1877 by legendary American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, after he procured them from a group who had excavated the Red Beds rock formation in Texas. Cope officially named the genus Dimetrodon a year later, although he initially believed that the sail was a fin belonging to a lizard.
Palaeoecology
Dimetrodon remains have been found across the southern United States and even as far away as Germany, dating back to a period when Europe and America formed a supercontinent known as Euramerica. The genus lived alongside a rich variety of primitive animals such as Diplocaulus, Edaphosaurus and Captorhinus, and is believed to have been the apex predator of its environment.
Information
- Era
- Early Permian
- Family
- Sphenacodontidae
- Genus
- Dimetrodon
- Height
- 1.8M
- Length
- 4.5M
- Weight
- 226Kg
- Diet
- Carnivore Feeder
- Egg batch size
- 2 - 4
