#stem-mammal
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alphynix · 12 days ago
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Therocephalians were a group of synapsids very closely related to – or possibly even ancestral to – the lineage leading to modern mammals. They were a diverse and successful group of carnivores during the latter half of the Permian, but suffered massively during the "Great Dying" mass extinction, with only a handful of representatives making it a few million years into the Triassic.
Tetracynodon darti was one of these rare Triassic therocephalian survivors, living in what is now South Africa around 251 million years ago. Only about 25cm long (~10"), it had slender limbs and strong claws that suggest it was a scratch-digger. Its long snout was lined with pointed teeth, and it was probably an active predator hunting by snapping its jaws at fast-moving prey like insects and smaller vertebrates.
Its combination of small size, burrow-digging habits, and unspecialized diet may be the reason it scraped through the Great Dying when most of its relatives didn't – but unfortunately it seems to have been a "dead clade walking", disappearing only a short way into early Triassic deposits.
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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon
References:
Fontanarrosa, Gabriela, et al. "The manus of Tetracynodon (Therapsida: Therocephalia) provides evidence for survival strategies following the Permo-Triassic extinction." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 38.4 (2018): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1491404
Sigurdsen, Trond, et al. "Reassessment of the morphology and paleobiology of the therocephalian Tetracynodon darti (Therapsida), and the phylogenetic relationships of Baurioidea." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32.5 (2012): 1113-1134. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254315180_Reassessment_of_the_Morphology_and_Paleobiology_of_the_Therocephalian_Tetracynodon_Darti_Therapsida_And_The_Phylogenetic_Relationships_of_Baurioidea
Wikipedia contributors. “Tetracynodon” Wikipedia, 21 Aug. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetracynodon
Wikipedia contributors. “Therocephalia” Wikipedia, 01 Oct. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therocephalia
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amnhnyc · 4 months ago
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Research alert! Two new fossils of a mouse-sized animal from the age of dinosaurs indicate that early mammals grew more slowly and lived longer than their modern descendants—rewriting our understanding of the lives of the very earliest mammals. An international study led by researchers at National Museums Scotland and published today in the journal Nature, compares two Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis fossils discovered decades apart in Scotland’s Isle of Skye. One of the fossils, the only juvenile Jurassic mammal skeleton known to science, was discovered in 2016 by Roger Benson, the Museum’s Macaulay Curator in the Division of Paleontology, and colleagues.
“These fossils are among the most complete mammals from this time period in the world,” said Elsa Panciroli, the lead author of the study and an associate researcher of paleobiology at National Museums Scotland. 
Learn how these small animals give us unprecedented insights into the lives of early mammals.
Image: © Maija Karala
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mindblowingscience · 1 year ago
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If you were to host a blacklight party in the taxidermy wing of a natural history museum, most of the mammals would fit right in with their eerie fluorescent glow. That's what Kenny Travouillon, the curator of mammalogy at the Western Australian Museum, found when his team shone ultraviolet light on 125 species of mammal in the collection. The luminous effect wasn't restricted to platypuses and wombats, which were identified as biofluorescent species a few years ago. Every species of mammal they examined emitted a green, blue, pink, or white hue under UV light. The inside of a red fox's pointy ears turned shocking, fluorescent green. The polar bear lit up like a white t-shirt under a blacklight, as did the zebra's white stripes and the leopard's yellow fur. The wings of the orange leaf-nosed bat became a stark white skeleton, while its fur glowed pink. And the ears and tail of the greater bilby shone "bright like a diamond," as Travouillon described in 2020. The study showed that fluorescence is present in half of mammalian families, almost all clades, and in all 27 orders.
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knuppitalism-with-ue · 1 year ago
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Result from the Tiaojishan formation #paleostream! We had a closer look at the arboreal fauna of this formation
Also some close ups
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dvinia · 1 year ago
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a long time ago youd have called her "mom" !
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ppaleoartistgallery · 6 months ago
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#Maysozoic Day 17 - Repenomamus
oh lord i have 8 days to catch up on rip, but yeah i dont draw synapsids (apart from humans) often so this took way longer than it shouldve
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here's the prompt list:
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mulchmouth · 5 months ago
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Happy pride yall. We have been here forever.
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ungojirasapiente · 3 months ago
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new PaleoArt, after so long, here's the triassic stem-mammal that became somewhat known because of WWD, Placerias! ------ nuevo PaleoArte, despues de tanto tiempo, aqui esta el proto-mamifero del triasico que se volvio algo conocido por Caminando Con Dinosaurios, Placerias! ---
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science-for-the-masses · 8 months ago
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transingthoseformers · 1 month ago
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Btw look up stem mammals / mammal like reptiles right now I love them dearly
They've got many great hits and they're so fascinating to look at
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alphynix · 6 months ago
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Modern mammals are the only living representatives of the synapsids, but back during the Permian there were numerous other evolutionary branches – first the pelycosaurs, and later their descendant the therapsids.
Some of the first non-mammalian therapsids were the biarmosuchians, mid-sized carnivores with a more upright posture than their pelycosaur ancestors. They had large canine teeth in their jaws and powerful bites, and some of them also developed elaborate ornamentation on their skulls, with various bony bumps and crests adorning their faces.
Pachydectes elsi was a 1.5m long (~5') biarmosuchian living in what is now South Africa during the late Permian, about 265 million years ago. Bone texture indicates its head ornamentation was covered by either tough thickened skin or a keratinous sheath, and the large bulbous bosses on the sides of its snout had a particularly rich blood supply, suggesting these structures could have been continuously growing throughout its entire life.
But despite how well-protected it looked, Pachydectes' skull was actually relatively fragile and wouldn't have been able to withstand the impact forces of using its headgear for fighting or defense. Instead it may have been mostly used for visual display – and the blood supply to the snout bosses might even have given it the ability to "blush" them if they had a soft-tissue covering.
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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon
References:
Benoit, J., et al. "Early synapsids neurosensory diversity revealed by CT and synchrotron scanning." The Anatomical Record (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25445
Rubidge, Bruce S., Christian A. Sidor, and Sean P. Modesto. "A new burnetiamorph (Therapsida: Biarmosuchia) from the middle Permian of South Africa." Journal of Paleontology 80.4 (2006): 740-749. https://doi.org/10.1666/0022-3360(2006)80[740:ANBTBF]2.0.CO;2
Wikipedia contributors. “Biarmosuchia.” Wikipedia, 13 Feb. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biarmosuchia
Wikipedia contributors. “Pachydectes.” Wikipedia, 7 Feb. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachydectes
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hasellia · 8 months ago
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Kollikodon Presents: Hot Cross Bunodon WIP GAHHHH!! So close to Easter! I juuuuust missed it! Maybe I can make it presentable tomorrow? maybe...
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mindblowingscience · 5 months ago
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As bones encased in rock rotted away, water-borne silica seeped into the crevices, solidifying into opal and preserving precious details for 100 million years. The resulting fossils now provide evidence that there really may have been an Age of Monotremes, before other mammals came to dominate. "It's like discovering a whole new civilization," says Australian Museum paleontologist Tim Flannery. "Today, Australia is known as a land of marsupials, but discovering these new fossils is the first indication that Australia was previously home to a diversity of monotremes." Only five of these rare mammals still cling to existence: one platypus and four echidna species, shared between Australia and Papua New Guinea. But due to their reptilian-like egg-laying feature, it has long been thought these animals evolved before placental mammals like us and marsupials.
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trashrat176 · 1 year ago
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I’m trying to get back into drawing paleo art. Here’s a happy estemmenosuchus
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goji-pilled · 1 year ago
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also dimetrodon is closer related to you and me than it is to dinosaurs
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this is your evolutionary weird aunt put respect on her name
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ppaleoartistgallery · 1 year ago
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Paleostream 9/09/2023
results of today's Paleostream
today we drew Anomocephalus, Praepinacoceras, Arthropleura (in the back), and Brachiosuchus!
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