Tag Archive for 'Synapsid'

An artist’s impression of Lystrosaurus. Image credit: Victor O. Leshyk, www.victorleshyk.com / University of Birmingham.

250-Million-Year-Old Embryonated Dicynodont Egg Found in South Africa

Apr 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using high-resolution CT and synchrotron scanning, paleontologists confirmed that the fossilized specimen from the Early Triassic of the South African...

Interpretation of the tusked animal of the Horned Serpent panel and its dicynodont-like traits. Image credit: J. Benoit, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309908.

Strange Tusked Animal in South African Rock Art is Permian Dicynodont, Scientist Claims

Sep 19, 2024 by News Staff

The Horned Serpent panel at La Belle France in the Free State province of South Africa was painted by the San people at least two hundred years ago. It...

Life restoration of Lalieudorhynchus gandi and an associated aquatic tupilakosaurid temnospondyl (bottom left); estimated water depth about 2 m, algae are possible. Image credit: Frederik Spindler.

Permian Synapsid Had Hippopotamus-Like Semi-Aquatic Lifestyle

Aug 4, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of caseid synapsid that lived 264 million years ago (Permian period) has been identified from a partial but well-preserved postcranial...

An artist’s impression of the likely-endothermic Dimetrodon grandis, an early synapsid that was around for about 20 million years from the Early Permian epoch, 295 million years ago. Image credit: Max Bellomio.

Study Sheds New Light on Origin of Whole-Body Endothermy

Dec 14, 2021 by News Staff

The whole-body endothermy seen in modern birds and mammals is long held to have evolved independently in each group, a reasonable assumption when it was...

Posture shift at the end of the Permian period, 252 million years ago. Before the crisis, most reptiles had sprawling posture; afterwards they walked upright. This may have been the first sign of a new pace of life in the Triassic. Image credit: Jim Robins, University of Bristol.

End-Permian Extinction Triggered Switch to Warm-Bloodedness

Oct 16, 2020 by News Staff

The ancestors of both mammals and birds became warm-blooded at the same time, some 250 million years ago, in the time of the end-Permian mass extinction,...

An artist’s impression of an adult and a juvenile Dendromaia unamakiensis. Image credit: Henry Sharpe.

305-Million-Year-Old Fossil Shows Parent Caring for Its Offspring

Dec 24, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A Carboniferous-period fossil found in Nova Scotia, Canada, shows an ancient creature called a varanopid synapsid (family Varanopidae) caring for its young. An...

Dorsal view of the left hand of a 10-week old human embryo. The dorsometacarpales are highlighted: these muscles are present in adults of many other limbed animals, while in humans they normally disappear or become fused with other muscles before birth. Image credit: Diogo et al, doi: 10.1242/dev.180349.

Human Embryos Have ‘Lizard-Like’ Limb Muscles: Study

Oct 2, 2019 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Development, has confirmed the transient presence of atavistic muscles — present in our ancestors, but normally...

Lisowicia bojani. Image credit: Dmitry Bogdanov / CC BY 3.0.

Elephant-Sized Dicynodont from Triassic Period Discovered: Lisowicia bojani

Nov 27, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Poland have found fossil fragments from a giant new species of mammal-like reptile that walked the Earth approximately 237 million years...

Hippo family in Botswana. Image credit: Hans Stieglitz / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Plant-Eating Mammals Have Bigger Bellies, Claims New Study

Nov 7, 2016 by News Staff

Herbivorous, or plant-eating, mammals have bigger bellies than their usually slim carnivorous counterparts, according to a study led by University of Zurich...