#Paleoart from 2019: my take on the early synapsid #Dimetrodon grandis, featuring some cute dimetrodonlets (with small sails, as shown by fossils) and a less-cute, half-eaten and decapitated Diplocaulus excavated from a burrow. Hey, eaters gotta eat. #sciart #fossils #paleontology - ThreadSky

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markwitton.bsky.social • 13 hours ago

#Paleoart from 2019: my take on the early synapsid #Dimetrodon grandis, featuring some cute dimetrodonlets (with small sails, as shown by fossils) and a less-cute, half-eaten and decapitated Diplocaulus excavated from a burrow. Hey, eaters gotta eat. #sciart #fossils #paleontology

Comments

swordznsorcery.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Wonderful. I love depictions of Dimetrodon. Guessing the holes in the sail are indicative of age, or possibly combat scars?

markwitton.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Yes, wear and tear of some kind. We know that their sails sustained some damage in life as the spines are sometimes snapped and healed.

swordznsorcery.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Thank you! I didn't know that.

flyingsquid.bsky.social•12 hours ago

I have been obsessed with the dimetrodon ever since I was a kid and saw the 1950s Journey to the Center of the Earth film that featured iguanas with fins glued to their backs, which James Mason proclaimed to be dimetrodons.

markwitton.bsky.social•12 hours ago

I watched this again recently and thought the iguanas looked pretty good! But I was also disgusted by their treatment: one is stabbed, some are tied together to simulate predation, a tegu is smothered in "lava"... animal - especially - reptile welfare in older films is so terrible.

flyingsquid.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Agreed. I always skip those scenes now, but I have so much nostalgia for that film that I still give it a rewatch on occasion. I freely admit that it's terrible, but it's also got James Mason, a Bernard Herrmann score, and it's a fun story even though they made it extremely silly.