pelycosaur
Aug. 24th, 2018 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordpelycosaur (PEL-i-kuh-sawr) - n., any of various extinct synapsid land reptiles (formerly in order Pelycosauria) many with a dorsal sail.
These are the ancestors of the therapsid reptiles, which in turn were the ancestors of mammals. Pelycosaurs evolved in the late Carboniferous around 308 million years ago, and were the dominant land animals until 260 million years ago, in the mid-Permian. They were replaced as the dominant animals by the therapsids, who held the title until the mid-Triassic, when the dinosaurs took over. The best known pelycosaurs are the dimetrodons of the early Permian, which became extinct 40 million years before the first dinosaurs evolved:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
The name was coined in 1878 from Greek roots pélyx, wooden bowl (used as meaning pelvis, because their pelvises are different from dinosaurian) + saûros, lizard.
And that wraps up a week of non-dino -saurs. Next week, back to the random heap of words. Well, really, it's a queue kept in a Goggle doc, but it works like a queue.
---L.
These are the ancestors of the therapsid reptiles, which in turn were the ancestors of mammals. Pelycosaurs evolved in the late Carboniferous around 308 million years ago, and were the dominant land animals until 260 million years ago, in the mid-Permian. They were replaced as the dominant animals by the therapsids, who held the title until the mid-Triassic, when the dinosaurs took over. The best known pelycosaurs are the dimetrodons of the early Permian, which became extinct 40 million years before the first dinosaurs evolved:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
The name was coined in 1878 from Greek roots pélyx, wooden bowl (used as meaning pelvis, because their pelvises are different from dinosaurian) + saûros, lizard.
And that wraps up a week of non-dino -saurs. Next week, back to the random heap of words. Well, really, it's a queue kept in a Goggle doc, but it works like a queue.
---L.
