synapsid-taxonomy

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I want to be immortal so I can gaze at this beauty for eternity

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Lisowicia bojani

A dicynodont synapsid that lived during the late Triassic in Poland. It was about 4.5 to 5 meters long and stood over 2 meters tall, making it the largest known dicynodont, as well as the largest non-mammalian synapsid.

Artwork by Julius Csotonyi

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Here the result from the Pleistocene Flores #paleostream! This land, stuck between Sundaland and Australia revealed a fascinating fossil assemblage over the last few decades.

Dwarfed Stegodon, giant rats. huge marabou storks and komodo dragons are the most prominent members of the late Pleistocene fauna. Of these only the giant rats are still to be found on Flores.

Flores wasn't much of a household name in paleontology until 2004 - I remember it well - when a astonishing discovery was announced from the cave Liang Bua. Among the many animal remains were stone tools and surprisingly small hominin remains. After a lot of debate this would eventually be known as Homo floresiensis, a human species standing not much taller than 1 m. Little is known about this species. Especially it's cultural expressions and technological advances are the topic of many discussions and speculation.

One aspect that is rarely brought up in discussions around Flores are the birds, yes storks and vultures are popular but there is a huge number of living and fossil species found in these sites. As you can see in this size chart by Discord member JW there are still many interesting compositions to put together here. One thing that was important to me with this image was: 1. not to make it a dense jungle piece, and 2. not that make it a Stegodon hunting scene; that has been done too many times. The cave deposits at Liang Bua suggest that...

H. floresiensis inhabited this site especially during dryer intervals that would probably correlate with more open environments like the Lesser Sundas deciduous forests and savannas.

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canada lynx voted the animal of all time. Boy why are you so paws

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I really want to see an orangutan with conditioned and flat ironed hair, I think we should do it once

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Some of my personal faves from the National Parks Oracle Deck 🐻🌿

Kangaroo rat, fat brown bear, american badger, and northern river otter

This was such a dream project, anyone looking to hire someone to draw like a billion animals you know where to find me

You can see the rest of my menagerie and learn more about the deck here

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John Fery (1859 – 1934). Distant Storm. Oil on canvas.

Coeur d’Alene Art Auction

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It’s time for Caturday! Here’s a feline that enjoys being around water: the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). Found in parts of Southeast Asia, this critter prefers to inhabit areas near bodies of water, like mangroves, marshes, and swamps. As its name implies, this wild cat specializes in hunting fish, scooping prey out of the water with its paws or even dunking its head below the water’s surface to catch one with its mouth! It has a layer of short, densely packed hair close to its skin that helps keep it dry and warm by preventing water from seeping through.

Photo: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, flickr

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baby capybara named Tupi via san antonio zoo

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really big fan of this diagram explaining amniote classification that has very clearly just taken the skull of highly derived synapsid miss dimetrodon and just absolutely gone to town on it

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Grant Hagen (1921 - 1977). Coyotes and Porcupine. Oil and gouache.

National Museum of Wildlife Art

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anyway the whole argument of "this animal sucks it is unfit to live and is destined for extinction" was also applied to the thylacine so if you invoke that argument for any extant species you are a fake thylacine fan

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Ploop ploop ploop

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A fishing cat practices hunting with her kittens. BBC Earth

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Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) by Will Burrard-Lucas

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Today's Seal Is: My Watchful Mama