Cotylorhynchus – Early Permian (279-272 Ma)Before the Mesozoic Era, millions of years before d

Cotylorhynchus – Early Permian (279-272 Ma)Before the Mesozoic Era, millions of years before dinosaurseven thought about showing up, was a 50 million year-long period called thePermian. You probably know that already. The Permian was the first real boom invertebrate diversity on land. Terrestrial vertebrates had come a long wayduring the Carboniferous, and made several important adaptations that helpedthem conquer the earth during the following period. Among them was the evolutionof waterproof, hard shelled, or, “amniote,’ eggs. The ability to reproduce onland let vertebrates spread all over the continent of Pangea. This isespecially helpful, because the Permian was drier than the Carboniferous. Despite popular belief, the Permian wasn’t an age of reptiles.There were big reptiles, for sure, but they weren’t the majority. The majoritywas the other branch of amniotes, the synapsids. They were in charge, and hadfree rein to turn into all sorts of weird shapes. That’s how something like Cotylorhynchus happens.This was the biggest guy around in the early Permian, whichwasn’t as big as you might think. Think a cow that’s closer to the ground, andyou have Cotylorhynchus. Oh, andshrink its head a bunch, too. Do you want to know why its head was so tiny? Sodo I.Yeah, its head was just kind of like that. Its body wasmassive for a reason, though. Well, a few reasons. Like I mentioned a minuteago, Cotylorhynchus was a builtmotherfucker. It was significantly bigger than anything around it, even Dimetrodon, which was only about halfits size without the sail. Cow-sized was enough to be absolutely massive backthen, and its sheer bulk kept it safe. It also housed a powerful digestivesystem to break down plant matter. It was one of nature’s first examples of thewalking glacier archetype, and it even reminds me of the Pokémon Avalugg, whichis a literal walking glacier. And would you believe that the best way to beatboth is to not even bother challenging their defense? Just set them on fire andthey’ll both go down. But really, Cotylorhynchuswas essentially indestructible in the eyes of your average early Permianpredator. It’s also worth mentioning that it had a cousin called Casea, which basically looked the samebut was the size of an iguana. This begs the question, which came first, thebig one, or the small one? Were they all tiny with tiny heads, or did they justshrink down to that size after a while? Cotylorhynchusand Casea lived at the same time, soit’s hard to say. We do know that there were members of their family who hadreasonably-sized heads, on top of that.Some other features worth mentioning: It had really broadshoulders and dexterous hands. It probably dug up roots and such as part of itsdiet. The shape of its skull implies it was really good at smelling, which is agood thing to be when you’re hungry all the time and constantly looking forfood to nourish your colossal body. It also had long fingers and broad,paddle-like hands. Yes, I’m going there. From what we can tell about its rangeof motion and everything listed above, it was probably semi-aquatic. Yeah, it’snot really streamlined in any way whatsoever, but did it need to be? Manateescan get away with it. Cotylorhynchusprobably swam more like a turtle, by drifting and propelling itself with itslimbs. It wasn’t much more graceful underwater than it was on land, but itreally didn’t have to be, if you ask me. -- source link

More pics about