#tetrapodomorpha

[quark-nova]

Why tetrapodomorphs are way cooler than you think

Tetrapodomorphs. Today, most often remembered as "that stepping stone towards tetrapods conquering land". But, if you were one of those early tetrapods in the Carboniferous, you probably wouldn't be seeing it that way.

Let me explain.

We humans have a tendency to interpret the past through the lens of the present - and, most often, of our present. This causes a teleological bias, that is, seeing past creatures as part of a "march of progress". Tetrapodomorphs destined to become tetrapods, then amniotes, etc. It's even in their name!

The truth is, evolution is far branchier and messier. And, in the swamps and rivers of the Mississippian, 330 million years ago, our ancestors cowered in fear of other tetrapodomorphs - the rhizodonts.

The group's namesake, Rhizodus, was the was the largest freshwater fish to ever exist. Seven meters long and weighing more than a ton, this ambush predator hid in a niche similar to that of crocodilians today.

Rhizodus and its kin preyed not only on fish and freshwater sharks, but also on early tetrapods resting on the shore. Their lobed fins, less flexible than those of early tetrapods, had instead became broad and paddle-like, helping them push themselves through swampy waters, and throw themselves on their shorebound prey.

Thanks to their powerful fins and long, flexible body, rhizodonts could even slither on land for tens of meters in chase of their prey, with body trails stretching over 60 meters having been discovered. Even on dry land, limbed tetrapods did not stand unchallenged.

Two fangs at the edge of their mouths, up to 20 centimeters long, allowed them to firmly take hold of their prey. While we can't know for sure what happened next, it is likely that they dragged the unsuspecting creature into the water, thrashing and death-rolling it around to eat it piecemeal.

The heyday of rhizodonts would last for the entire Carboniferous. With climate quickly changing by the end of the period, rhizodonts would go away with it. In the waters, they wouldn't be matched by actual tetrapods until the Triassic, with the rise of various clades of aquatic reptiles like phytosaurs.

[justgoji]

Ichthyostega stensioei, one of the earliest known four limbed vertebrates in the fossil record.

With Hatsune Miku for scale:

[allegaeon]

you got cats?? i wanna see them

I have FOUR

[ratsalad]

🎵

i got schubert's erlkönig, and i honestly cannot pick one lyric, the entire poem is a chilling masterpiece. here is the german text with english translation, it's quite short and absolutely haunting to follow along with the music

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Birds are class Aves.

Sure, under Linnaean taxonomy. But, well,

A) Linnaeus was a eugenecist so his scientific opinions are suspect and his morality is awful

B) he didn't know about evolution

C) he didn't know about prehistoric life

so his classification system? Sucks ass. It doesn't work anymore. It no longer reflects the diversity of life.

Instead, scientists - almost across the board, now - use Clades, or evolutionary relationships. No rankings, no hierarchies, just clades. It allows us to properly place prehistoric life, it removes our reliance on traits (which are almost always arbitrary) in classifying organisms, and allows us to communicate the history of life just by talking about their relationships.

So, for your own edification, here's the full classification of birds as we currently know it, from biggest to smallest:

Biota/Earth-Based Life

Archaeans

Proteoarchaeota

Asgardians (Eukaryomorphans)

Eukaryota (note: Proteobacteria were added to an asgardian Eukaryote to form mitochondria)

Amorphea

Obazoa

Opisthokonts

Holozoa

Filozoa

Choanozoa

Metazoa (Animals)

ParaHoxozoa (Hox genes show up)

Planulozoa

Bilateria (all bilateran animals)

Nephrozoa

Deuterostomia (Deuterostomes)

Chordata (Chordates)

Olfactores

Vertebrata (Vertebrates)

Gnathostomata (Jawed Vertebrates)

Eugnathostomata

Osteichthyes (Bony Vertebrates)

Sarcopterygii (Lobe-Finned Fish)

Rhipidistia

Tetrapodomorpha

Eotetrapodiformes

Elpistostegalia

Stegocephalia

Tetrapoda (Tetrapods)

Reptiliomorpha

Amniota (animals that lay amniotic eggs, or evolved from ones that did)

Sauropsida/Reptilia (reptiles sensu lato)

Eureptilia

Diapsida

Neodiapsida

Sauria (reptiles sensu stricto)

Archelosauria

Archosauromorpha

Crocopoda

Archosauriformes

Eucrocopoda

Crurotarsi

Archosauria

Avemetatarsalia (Bird-line Archosaurs, birds sensu lato)

Ornithodira (Appearance of feathers, warm bloodedness)

Dinosauromorpha

Dinosauriformes

Dracohors

Dinosauria (fully upright posture; All Dinosaurs)

Saurischia (bird like bones & lungs)

Eusaurischia

Theropoda (permanently bipedal group)

Neotheropoda

Averostra

Tetanurae

Orionides

Avetheropoda

Coelurosauria

Tyrannoraptora

Maniraptoromorpha

Neocoelurosauria

Maniraptoriformes (feathered wings on arms)

Maniraptora

Pennaraptora

Paraves (fully sized winges, probable flighted ancestor)

Avialae

Avebrevicauda

Pygostylia (bird tails)

Ornithothoraces

Euornithes (wing configuration like modern birds)

Ornithuromorpha

Ornithurae

Neornithes (modern birds, with fully modern bird beaks)

idk if this was a gotcha, trying to be helpful, or genuine confusion, but here you go.

all of this, ftr, is on wikipedia, and you could have looked it up yourself.

[misfit-among-the-angels]

Tagged by @fra-helviti some time ago, thanks! 💜

Are you named after someone? Nope.

When was the last time you cried? Yesterday.

Do you have kids? Nope.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Sometimes, but not too much.

What's the first thing you notice about people? Eyes, hands, how they talk.

What's your eye colour? Green mixed with grey

Scary movies or happy endings? Both.

Any special talents? I don't have any special talents.

Where were you born? Lithuania.

What are your hobbies? Sleeping, hiking in the mountains, photography, reading books, going to concerts, traveling, watching tv series/movies.

Have you any pets? Sadly nope.

What sports do you play/have played? I used to play football a bit and do some athletics.

How tall are you? 172cm

Favourite subjects at school? History, languages, physics, geography.

Dream job? Don't have a dream job.

Tagging: @healution, @lightcycler, @riveroflonging, @bonewhiteglory, @rotting-sword-maiden, @nikkivenomized and @tetrapodomorpha

[tetrapodomorpha]

thank you tumblr mutual tetrapodomorpha for being the realest and putting up with my 7 billion tags on both my blogs you are stronger than any us marine

dude your tags are cool why wouldn't i put up with them???

[gaetaniu]

Fossili di 380 milioni di anni fa di pesci tetrapodi che respiravano aria trovati in Australia

Harajicadectes zhumini. Il paleontologo Brian Choo della Flinders University e i suoi colleghi hanno descritto un nuovo genere e una nuova specie di pesce tetrapodomorfo del Devoniano, basandosi su alcuni crani e scheletri postcraniali quasi completi. “I Tetrapodomorpha comprendono i tetrapodi palmati e i loro parenti più stretti, la cui più antica documentazione proviene dal Pragian della…

[cavenewstimes]

380-Million-Year-Old Fossils of Air-Breathing Tetrapod Fish Found in Australia

Flinders University paleontologist Brian Choo and his colleagues have described a new genus and species of Devonian tetrapodomorph fish based on several nearly complete skulls and postcranial skeletons. Life reconstruction of Harajicadectes zhumini. Image credit: Brian Choo, Flinders University. “Tetrapodomorpha comprises the limbed tetrapods and their closest fish relatives, whose earliest…

[overlordpony]

fish out of water

a limited palette and my first attempt at making a very-dead creature look realistic i probably should have just used a normal palette to color him in but it's FINE this is a crassigyrinus -- he existed in the mississippian, about 350 mya he is a stem-tetrapod, so his efforts to make it onto land were futile and ended with him

[quark-nova]

You might not have noticed this before, but fish have four nostrils!

They are a bit different from ours, as fish don't breathe using their nostrils - they're only used for smell, with water flowing into the front ones and out of the back ones!

Surprisingly, our nostrils actually descend from such a configuration! Our ancestors were choanate fish (Tetrapodomorpha), a group in which the back nostrils migrated inside the mouth, with the amazing transitional fossil Kenichthys showing nostrils caught "in migration" between the teeth!

[allegaeon]

🖤 🧡🧛🏽‍♀️for being a badass with a good heart, have a pair of fangs to bite your favorite mutuals! 🧛🏽‍♀️🧡🖤 (Pass it on to your favs)

[bites you {carnally}]

[sucks u dry{of ur blood}]

[ratsalad]

I posted 12,159 times in 2022

That's 10,631 more posts than 2021!

1,021 posts created (8%)

11,138 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@theropoda

@odekirk

@miseryannie

@cannot-copia

@tetrapodomorpha

I tagged 10,327 of my posts in 2022

Only 15% of my posts had no tags

#ghost - 1,948 posts

#vaaya moodu - 1,364 posts

#better call saul - 1,035 posts

#house md - 931 posts

#art - 468 posts

#laugh rule - 459 posts

#breaking bad - 290 posts

#remember - 249 posts

#bcs 6b - 249 posts

#metalocalypse - 245 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#so he decides to live. he decides to fake his death because he realized he’s capable of finally honoring his and wilson’s love for each othe

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

753 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

#4

thinking about how mike got to see neither nacho nor jesse extract themselves from the game. thinking about mike losing 'sons' one after the other, his own or symbolical, as if doomed to the same fate over and over

thinking about how jesse was mike's redemption, because of course he saw it in him. the same way he glimpsed it in nacho but couldn't do anything about it. and when jesse did finally break free, he wasn't there to see it. nobody talk to me

838 notes - Posted June 2, 2022

#3

See the full post

876 notes - Posted July 27, 2022

#2

i’m losing my WHOLE goddamn mind

> house challenges wilson to choose at least ONE piece of furniture for their new condo instead of letting other people make choices for him/define who he is, bc according to him, the kind of furniture you get says something about you

> wilson spends ages at a shop looking at chairs and tables but in the end he caves and hires a decorator 

> house calls him a wuss

> but oh, what’s this? wilson’s bought an ORGAN. FOR HOUSE TO PLAY. i’m going to die screaming the implication of this..... that this is what wilson chose, that he looked at an organ that house would love to play and thought “this is me”

> the HOPEFUL APPREHENSION on his face when house uncovers the organ

See the full post

1,400 notes - Posted August 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

totally heterosexual things to say to your best and only friend with whom you’ve shared a rich history of unspoken love and sacrifice and being there for each other when no one else was

9,651 notes - Posted August 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

ribbit ribbit let's destroy linneaus some more

thanks to @quark-nova for the excellent clade options

[misfit-among-the-angels]

8, 30, 34, 42 for the music asks!

8. Is there an artist or song that you like, despite being of a genre you don't usually like? Oh yea. Tommy Cash, Go_A, Hailey Kiko.

30. Songs you love to sing along to: Anything by Nightwish, Rammstein, Avantasia/Edguy, Iron maiden, Arch enemy, Battle beast.

34. Your favorite song in your native language (if it isn’t English) OR in your second language (if English is your first): Either 1968 by Siela or Sado-mazo Germany by Pergalė

42. Your favorite(s) “no skips” album(s): Human. Nature by Nightwish Moonglow by Avantasia Brave new world by Iron maiden

Thank you

[that-crazy-scorpio-man]

Common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina).  Saw it right after I had to bypass a moccasin.