Dimetrodon has always been one of my favorite creatures. I don't think that you can help but be amazed by this low slung, four legged lizard-ish sprawler. This creature comes fully equipped with a large sail along the backbone. Head to tail, Dimetrodon was about 11' long.
Often mistakenly called by people a dinosaur it is classified as a pelycosaur and is thought to have some mammalian features.
The Dimetrodon name means "two-measure teeth" because of the 2 different kinds of teeth it had, both shearing and canine. This intriguing beast could shear its lunch into small pieces rather than gulping it down like modern day crocodiles do, making food easier to digest.
The sail on its back may have helped to warm up and cool off Dimetrodon though some network of blood vessels or some have thought it had some importance in display come mating season.
Strangely enough, nobody has suggested the sail was used for catching the wind when Dimetrodon was out yachting!
In any case this was a marvelous creature and very striking to see as a fossil.
Dimetrodon fossils have been found in Permian era rocks. It would have been another amazing creature to have seen while alive and roaming North America and Europe.
Dimetron was named and described by the famous and infamous Edward Drinker Cope in 1878.
Photo Copyright © 2010 David L. Friend
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