The sun rises over Dimetrodon as it travels across the landscape of the Middle Permian, spotting Diplocaulus, Titanoptera, a speculative proto-archosauromorph, and Prionosuchus along the way.
The piece 'Morning, when time had no end' was very kindly composed for this animation by the immensely talented Villi-refurinn. Check them out on Bandcamp for more fantastic music!
This one took a lot longer than usual, with life getting in the way and all that. Thank you all sincerely for waiting for so long!
Here is my favorite couple from Thuringia, the Tambacher Liebespaar (tambach lovers). A fossil of two skeletons of Seymouria sanjuanensis from the Bromacker quarry
Captorhinus skulls with pyrite and calcite crystal growth.
Captorhinus were anapsids from the Permian - meaning their skulls did not have the normal fenestration that diapsid reptiles or synapsid mammals have. Named for their hooked snout, these reptiles had a pineal(or "third") eye - a small photoreceptive spot on the top of the skull not seen in the pictures here.
Welcome back to Trilobite Tuesday! For some 270 million years, a variety of trilobites populated the Paleozoic seas. But by the end of their crawl through the Permian Period, only members of the proetid order—like this slightly disarticulated, 2-in- (5.1-cm-) long Ditomopyge—managed to survive.