What is a Dimetrodon?

What is a Dimetrodon?

Although it looks superficially like a dinosaur, dimetrodon was actually a type of prehistoric reptile known as a pelycosaur, and it lived during the Permian period, 50 million years or so before the first dinosaurs had even evolved.

What is Dimetrodon’s synapsid opening?

Dimetrodon is a member of a group called synapsids. Behind the eye socket in its skull is the synapsid opening. Its function is uncertain, but it may have been a passage for jaw muscles that helped Dimetrodon and other synapsids chew.

Is the Edaphosaurus Dimetrodon?

To the untrained eye, the 200-pound edaphosaurus looks like a scaled-down version of dimetrodon, complete with tiny head and miniaturized sail. However, this ancient pelycosaur subsisted mostly on plants and mollusks, whereas dimetrodon was a devoted meat eater.

How did Dimetrodon teutonis get its name?

Dimetrodon teutonis was named in 2001 from the Saar Nahe Basin of Germany and was the first species of Dimetrodon to be described outside North America. It is also the smallest species of Dimetrodon. In 1878, Cope published a paper called “The Theromorphous Reptilia” in which he described Dimetrodon cruciger.