#Seymouria

[velozee]

Happy Valentines Day

Here is my favorite couple from Thuringia, the Tambacher Liebespaar (tambach lovers). A fossil of two skeletons of Seymouria sanjuanensis from the Bromacker quarry

[animaraptor]

I'm back!

There are some sketches for my spec project. For example, on first art you can see fictional spesies of Thelyphonidias (vinegar spiders): they make complex network of burrows, using vinegar for dissolving limestone (real vinegar spiders only defend themself whith this acid). Another difference between real and my Thelyphonidias? Fictional ones are blind and also bigger.

Other picture show desert descendants of Seymouria. In my opinion, Seymouria deserves more love, because they are just scaless* lizards, who lays caviar and they lavra is literally fish with fins and inner gills (in other terms they are Pokemon probably).

* Some old theory tell that early Amniote and their relatives have scales, but they wasn't fully keratinized. In fact, they was soft exept their edges. And I love this idea.

P.S. Sorry for bad English.

[horrible-lizards]

Seymouria, 1988

[vickysaurus]

Seymouria, a cousin of the amniotes that looked a lot like a reptile but had tadpoles that lived in the water.

[robotblues]

The "Tambach lovers", a pair of Seymouria sanjuanensis from the Tambach Formation of Germany. This is a cast of the original fossil displayed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

By James St. John

[lucapizzelles]

i want to talk about luca taxonomy so bad i just have the unfortunate fate of not being in zoology anymore and also Not Having Free Time but yk.. seymouria.....................

[forgottensibiria]

WHAT IS FORGOTTEN SIBERIA?

If we try to describe the essence of Forgotten Siberia, then this is a speculative project about... parareptilia. Hmm, perhaps you remember the same spec from Kozman, the author of "All Tommorows"? We took same idea, but whith 🤓 energy - basically decided to make it as realistic and able to fit into our reality as our data allows.

In shot, a primitive seymouria-like creatures traveled on Sibiria continent and slowly move in taiga-like north forests, were started evolving in some bizarre forms called Angarovenators before Siberian traps caused the Great Persian Extinction and burn almost all angarovenators bones.

Kosmen's parareptilias

P.S. Some paleontologists, like Mikhail Ivakhnenko, include Seymouriamorphs in Parareptilia, but modern science considers they to be Reptiliomorpha.

Too complicated? Let's try to explain below.

Spec himself grew out of a little-known fact. In the distant past, before the beginning of the Triassic period, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as Laurussia well as the eastern part of Russia — Siberia, were not part of Pangea, but formed 2 separate continents — Katasia (China) and Siberia (the rest of the countries). The last continent is called Angraida in Russian, after one of the largest rivers in North Asia. At first, these continents were separated from the rest of the land by the Ural Ocean, then by the Ural Mountains and the new sea, then comparable to the Himalayas, when formally this territory collided with Laurussia, the northern part of Pangea. It was in this area that the Siberian traps spread, destroying 90% of the species on Earth and causing the Great Extinction of the Persians.

Earth 340 million years ago. Yellow land - continent Sibiria or Angarida (not misunderstood whith modern region). Relative to the current position of Asia, this continent is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, so Magadan was at the north pole. Angarida include Eastern Siberia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Red land is Cathaysia - modern China.

And now the main nuance: in Siberia (starting from the eastern slope of the Urals), almost no vertebrate fossils dating back to the Carboniferous or Permian period have been found. The exceptions are the branchiosaurid Tungussogyrinus (Sibiria), who lived 250 million years ago, as well as the reptiliomorphs (Discosauriscinae) who lived 300 million years ago: Ariekanerpeton (Tajikistan, possibly Uzbekistan), Utegenia (Kazakhstan, China) and to a lesser extent Gnorhinosuchus (Kazakhstan). At the same time, an extensive fauna of synapsids, amphibians and reptiles was discovered in China and in the western foothills of the Urals. This means that the species quietly migrated to these continents, but did not inhabit Siberia.

Utegenia. Literally all terrestrial vertebrate from Angarida resembled axolotls. Also the Ariekanerpeton's larvae even had flippers that became limbs after metamorphosis. Interestingly, no fully grown individuals have been found in this species.

So, why Sibiria is empty?

First, it is worth remembering that relatively many insects, brachiopodas and other invertebrates lived in Siberia. Despite the lack of competitors, they did not grow as big as Arthropleura or Meganeura. Soon you will be able to guess for yourself why.

Secondly, it was a unique environment. Siberia was filled with a special, endemic ecosystem - humid Cordaites, taiga and even tundra. Yes, you heard right: in the Carboniferous and even the Permian period there was the Karoo ice age, which led to the formation of a temperate and Arctic climate. So maybe it was too cold?

Maybe. However, some African dicynodonts (they also found on the western slope of the Urals) lived in approximately temperate climates. Also, no one cancels the possibility of the existence of small reptilian and amphibian forms capable of hibernation, like modern live-bearing lizards and Siberian salamander.

Siberian salamander. and her habitat. The species is known for surviving deep freezes (as low as −45 °C)

Our spec explores the strangest explanation: the territory was early (320-310 millions years ago) occupied by poorly preserved forms who not displaced by more advanced amniotes due to their high adaptability to cold temperatures. Perhaps their skeleton was not completely calcified, and they were rare, which prevented them from being preserved in the geological history of the Earth. Moreover, a unperfect paleontological study of Siberia could also play into the absence of fossils of Siberian tetrapods.

Ariekanerpeton, Gnorhinosuchus (subfamily Discosauriscinae) and Utegenia (family Kotlassioidea) turn out to be the best candidates, since they were the first to settle on the continent at all. Considering that Ariekanerpeton and Gnorhinosuchus are much closer to the European Discosauriscus of the same time than Utegenia, the migration of seymuriamorphs occurred at least twice; moreover, these species could well be the ancestors of the Kotlassia, Microphon and Karpinskiosaurus found in the Urals, respectively. Speck suggests that the descendants of Utegenia remained in warmer regions, while the more land-based Ariekanerpeton split into southern and northern branches. The latter gave rise to the Angarovenator clade - small and medium-sized amphibians animals, more adapted to the dry land rather the rivers and lakes shores. Technically, this group would become convergent to the real Seymourias.

Kotlassia and Karpinskiosaurus, 265-252 millions years ago. Found in same place as Inostrancevia

Below is the first sketch diagram of Seymouriamorphas evolution, where the length of each rectangle corresponds to the life span of the species:

So, some fist speculated species:

Poseideongenia, "Mother of the Month of Poseidon". Ancestor of Seymouriamorphs from all Laurussia, 320-310 millions years ago. Omnivorous terrestrial predator, gravitating towards reservoirs. The skull is approximately commensurate with Seymuria and does not exceed 10 cm in length. The vertebrae are not fully fused and resemble those of embelomers: the body is squat and elongated, the head is quite large. It has osteoderms on its belly. Fist who migrated in Siberia. The process was similar to the migration sof Monkeys to South America on wood rafts, with the only difference that Poseideongenia can stop eating for month like modern amphibians and reptiles. A direct descendant of the Siberian Poseideongenia - Utegenia. Unlike the offspring, the species larvae also have fins instead of limbs.

Moropeton, "Baby snake": ancestor of Discosauriscus from Moscow forests, 310-305 millions years ago. The collapse of forests in the Carboniferous divided the European population of Poseideongenia into several parts, one of which became. This population also began to crumble, and it was the inhabitants of the Moscow forests who were able to cross the Ural Ocean again, but in Siberia they faced the future Utegenias. Some species remained in the south, gradually losing competition to their relatives (Ariekanerpeton, Karpinskiosaurus), adapting more and more to an aquatic lifestyle: but the rest went north. The vertebrae are not fully fused and resemble those of embelomers: the body is squat and elongated, the head is quite large. The skull is slightly less than 8 cm. Osteoderms are found only in larvae.

Erimopeton, "Desert snake": ancestor of the Angarovenators, an animal with a shortened life cycle and adaptation to deserts (300-280 millions years ago). Perhaps (it has not yet been clarified) the southern territories and the taiga of Siberia could be separated by a desert area and mountains - another barrier for animals, so that Angarovenators are divided into mountain and desert species. The size of the skull is about 5 cm. Desert forms have a special wrinkled skin, dry and covered with a lot of keratin plaques, which they shed. Wrinkles are designed to preserve and collect moisture from the desert air. They lay caviar during the rainy seasons or migrating to wetter mountains, where the larvae undergo an accelerated development cycle (a week versus 20 years in Ariekanerpeton). Later species evolved from this clade. Some species, on the contrary, rely on desert rains and eventually became completely neotenic one-day forms.

Pustulasuchus?, "bubbleskin crocodiles": Descendants of late desert forms that developed a special bubbly skin. Keratin shields have become scales, under which bubbles are formed that can be filled with either water or carbon dioxide (taken from the blood). These bubbles can work both as a hydraulic muscle that lifts scales, and as a cooling or heat-trapping surface. These species are medium-sized predators that inhabit the northern forests of Siberia.

Pennasuchus?, "feathered crocodiles": It's a crazy idea that Angarovenators create their own analogue of a feather and archive new ability - gliding flight. This idea is taken from Spec's early ideas and we are not sure if it will be possible.

So far, this is all that is on the list. New issues will be released soon that will more accurately consider the evolution of Hangar Generators and their neighbors. And before we say goodbye, we'll give you some early spec concepts…

OLD CONCEPTS

Old concept of Pustulasuchus. Initially, the ancient diapsids were considered the ancestors, but this idea has become too far-fetched

Discarded evolution of Angarovenator skulls as eureptilians. In this version, the Angaroventors, independently of other treasures, had temporal windows for 15 million years due to acidic upper marshes and demineralization of the skeleton. However, it turned out that the forests of Angarida were not so deficient in minerals

Papiasaurus, duck-like lisard is the penosuchus occupying the niche of a platypus. Most likely, the seymouries retained electroreceptors.

Pustulasuchus and Pennasuchus Kikimosaurus. These concepts were created before the Seymouriamorphas idea, so drawings are not relevant.

Pennasuchus Kikimosaurus and primitive Pennasuchus species. These concepts were created before the Seymouriamorphas idea, so drawings are not relevant. There also used to be the idea that Angarovenators are the ancestors of Longisquama, which explains the presence of dorsal feathers in these versions.

The article was created with the help of a translator. If English is bad, I'm sorry. If you have a VK account and speak Russian, then you can get acquainted with the project here.

The project has been created by ANIMARAPTOR.

[zponds]

My big idea for Genie Team Season 10

Well, this is my 500th post, so I thought I’d talk about something big. That being one big idea I have for Grantgfan’s Genie Team season 10.

With that being the 10th season, I thought that my idea for it would be pretty big too. And my idea for The Genie Team season 10 is… the genies, their masters, and their friends finding out the realization of dinosaurs (and other prehistoric creatures) all around the world.

And this whole thing would be teased at the end of season 9, where a large map of the world with thumbtacks stuck in it, with each one depicting a known location of dinosaur sightings. They’d be 14 in all (at the moment); with 5 in North America, 3 in South America, 4 in Africa, 1 in Indonesia, and 1 in Australia. And as season 10 progresses, more thumbtacks would be added to the map, with a different color representing a different wave; like red for wave 1, blue for wave 2, green for wave 3, and yellow for wave 4.

And speaking of waves, the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures would make appearances in the several waves below. WAVE 1: Dryosaurus, Gallimimus, Homalocephale, Kentrosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Styracosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, Corythosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Ouranosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Stegosaurus, Albertosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, Acrocanthosaururs, Allosaurus, Spinosaurus, Tyrannosaurs Rex, Triceratops, Torosaurus, Carcharadontosaurus, Alioramus, Apatosaurus, Baryonyx, Compsognathus, Deinonychus, Diplodocus, Iguanodon, Maiasaura, Ornithomimus, Panoplosaurus, Tenontosaurus, Thescelosaurus, Wuerosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus, Pteranodon, Dimorphodon, Mosasaurus, and Tylosaurus.

WAVE 2: Othnielia, Hypsilophodon, Mamenchisaurus, Supersaurus, Brontosaurus, Ultrasaurus, Lambeosaurus, Shantungosaurus, Anatotitan, Olorotitan, Tsintaosaurus, Saurolophus, Hadrosaurus, Altirhinus, Centrosaurus, Einiosaurus, Pentaceratops, Euoplocephalus, Protoceratops, Psittacosaurus, Avaceratops, Microceratus, Orodrmeus, Gastonia, Edmontonia, Altirhinus, Brachylophosaurus, Gryposaurus, Hoplitosaurus, Stegoceras, Prenocephale, Tuojiangosaurus, Lexovisaurus, Paranthodon, Miragaia, Struthiomimus, Troodon, Proceratosaurus, Herrerasaurus, Torvosaurus, Tarbosaurus, Carnotaurus, Majungasaurus, Desplatosaurus, Suchomimus, Irritator, Procompsognathus, Ornitholestes, Cearadactylus, Geosternbergia, Nyctosaurus, Elasmosaurus, Plesiosaurus, and Styxosaurus.

WAVE 3: Dreadnoughtus, Alamosaurus, Argentinosaurus, Paralititan, Patagotitan, Sauroposeidon, Puertasaurus, Therizinosaurus, Convolosaurus, Leaellynasaurua, Stenopelix, Garudimimus, Wannanosaurus, Parkosaurus, Nipposaurus, Callovosaurus, Segnosaurus, Deinocheirus, Leptoceratops, Plateosaurus, Mussaurus, Melanosaurus, Oviraptor, Gigantoraptor, Caudipteryx, Lesothosaurus, Camptosaurus, Camposaurus, Yutyrannus, Rugops, Utahraptor, Dakotaraptor, Austroraptor, Sinosauropteryx, Mapusaurus, Tyrannotitan, Giganotosaurus, Gorogasaurus, Chirostenotes, Sinraptor, Microraptor, Sinornithosaurus, Archaeopteryx, Epidexipteryx, Caelestiventus, Tupuxuara, Zhenyuanopterus, Tropeognathus, Ornithocheirus, Hatzegopteryx, Alanqa, Hainosaurus, Icthyosaurus, Dakosaurus, Pliosaurus, and Temnodontasaurus.

WAVE 4: Shunosaurus, Saltasaurus, Nigersaurus, Amaragasaurus, Sinoceratops, Nasutoceratops, Agujaceratops, Chasmosaurus, Chungkingosaurus, Gigantspinosaurus, Dravidosaurus, Nodosaurus, Sauropelta, Minmi, Muttaburrasaurus, Dracorex, Stygimoloch, Dromiceimimus, Coelophysis, Eoraptor, Syntasaurus, Staurikosaurus, Saltopus, Shamosaurus, Struthiosaurus, Masiakasaurus, Eustreptospobdylus, Monolophosaurus, Limnoscelis, Labyrinthodontia, Diplocaulus, Koolosuchus, Metriorhynchus, Microposaurus, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus, Ichthyostega, Eogyrinus, Cacops, Seymouria, Prinoshuchus, Acanthostega, Eryops, Mastodonsaurus, Metoposaurus, Nothosaurus, Tanystropheus, Mesosaurus, Cryptoclidus, Kronosaurus, Liopleurodon, Shonisaurus, Onchopristus, Protostega, Archelon, Globidens, Ramphorhyncus, Ludodactylus, Scaphognathus, Tupandactylus, Azdarcho, Anomalocaris, Hallucigenia, Pterygotus, Ammonite, Cladoselache, Dunkleosteus, Eustenopteron, Hylonomus, Dimetrodon, Scutosaurus, Kannemeyeria, and Lystrosaurus.

That’s the four main waves of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles, and other prehistoric creatures that’ll appear in Genie Team season 10. It’s a lot of species, I know, but it’ll help in making season 10 of Grantgfan’s Genie Team even bigger. And I’d gladly help him in figuring out the scripts for future episodes of season 10.

[antiqueanimals]

Extinct Amphibians, and those in Danger of Extinction, written by Philip Steele, 1991. Illustrations by Robert Morton.

[welcometoamphibia]

The genus Andrias has the largest living amphibians and is where King Andrias got his name.

[velozee]

Happy International Womans Day and happy #fossilfriday

I am very happy to announce that my artwork "Dance in the dust" won the audience choice award for paleoart at the Visual Conference For Women Archaelogists And Paleontologists (VCWAP).

While the artwork did not convince the jury of the Bromacker Paleoart Contest for which is was originally created I am really happy that the audience of the congress found my art award worthy.🎉

The artwork can still be seen at the Bromacker Lab at Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha and if you want to know more about permian critters from thuringia then check out the Bromacker project

[moszeuchreets]

Seymouria was an extinct genus of seymouriamorph that lived in North America and Europe during the Early Permian (280 to 270 mya). Although this meter long (2 foot) long animal appears reptilian, it is considered an Amphibian with reptilian features such as muscular legs and dry skin to absorb and store moisture, but they still lay eggs in the water. This provided evidence to the evolution of amphibians that depended on the water to reptiles being able to fully leave the water. Image source: https://fossil.fandom.com/wiki/Seymouria

[seymouria]

http://seymouria.pl/20181-Car-Desert-GT-Lego.html

Another inspiration from GT cars. When I build models of this class, it always resembles the Ford GT40. You can't go far from these classic shapes and features. The sand color makes this model perfect for desert rides. If only there was still #13269 in Transparent Clear color it would be perfect.

[dinodorks]

Skeleton of Seymouria baylorensis on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

[robotblues]

Seymouria

Image by kkorvin from Pixabay

[diplotomodon]

ISPH 2017 - Day 2: The One Where I Just Geek Out With Phil Manning All Day

Much has happened today so let’s kick things off with the only mounted skeletons of Dryptosaurus in the world that were posed just like Charles Knight’s illustration because the exhibit designers at the New Jersey State Museum are adorable nerds

Our opening keynote lecture today was by Phil Manning, who gave an updated and expanded version of his talk on synchrotrons, fossil imaging, and “chemical ghosts”. Let it be stated on the record that I love this man and his work to death. As I was saying to my friends/colleagues earlier today, the guy’s a total powerhouse and publishes on absolutely everything. He was still in the field trenching out giant sauropods yesterday morning before flying over to Jersey for the day (and he’s back at it tomorrow).

We were able to catch up with him and Peter Dodson later in the day and had some good discussions. You might know that Manning likes to give out little tidbits and secrets peppered throughout his presentations, but he and his team are working on stuff that I legitimately can’t even mention offhand because of paperwork and press releases. All I can say is that from a perspective of education, outreach, and data collection, I am so incredibly excited about the announcement within the next few months, which at the bare minimum will necessitate literal decades of future research.

On that bombshell, onto the first session of the day on biomechanics:

Alida Bailleul showed us evidence of avian-style cranial kinesis in Tyrannosaurus, based on preserved cartilage implying the presence of synovial joints

Jordi Estefa explained how a salamander-like posture isn’t really a good model to reconstruct stem amniotes, and made a convincing case based on humerus morphology that we should really be using echidnas instead

Lucas Legendre gave us a whirlwind overview of aardvark long bone histology, and suggested that their high-energy digging lifestyle can be seen within ontogenetic changes. Also the man wrapped up with a relevant set of Louis C.K. gifs and I have nothing but respect

We moved right into a short session on practical methodology where the chief preparator at the Yale Peabody Museum Marilyn Fox gave us some best practices and things to look out for

Alexandra Houssaye went over the methods she used for quantitative 3D analysis of mammal bone, and reaffirmed to everyone that R is The Best Program

After lunch at the local BBQ (when a native Texan compliments the food you know it’s good), we moved onto physiology:

Tim Bromage showed us some cool pictures of Spinosaurus bone showing osteons and preserved collagen fibers, work that I think is especially useful given the hoo-ha about the genus in recent years (out-of-context quote of the day: “we need more birds”)

Maïtena Dumont noted a decrease in cortical vascularity percentage with development and bone remodeling among sauropod dinosaurs, which was work done via synchrotron

Zachary Boles (one of our own colleagues) talked about turtle types within the Late Cretaceous of New Jersey, and showed that habitat and probable life history could be determined based on shell histology

Rodrigo Pellegrini brought out some samples of the New Jersey crocodyliform Hyposaurus and gave us a sneak peek into the preliminary histological work being done on a wonderfully intact specimen

The next session was a special one focused around archaeology, so our group went off on our own to explore the museum and point out which specimens we’d seen before in the Academy prep labs. (There were many.)

Tomorrow: phylogeny, poster sessions, and the arguably quintessential Jersey finale...