MoAW Weekly Spotlight - From Primitive Reptile to Early Mammal, Aerosaurus wellesi

October 16, 2020

Spotlight

AEROSAURUS wellesi

from primitive reptile to early mammal

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Aerosaurus wellesi,

Early Permian, New Mexico

Photographs by Alberto Acosta

Class Reptilia,

Subclass Synapsida

Aerosaurus wellesi

Early Permian, New Mexico

The most primitive of the early synapsid reptile groups, the pelycosaurs may have led a somewhat amphibious existence, similar to that of alligators. Catching and killing its prey in jaws lined with an extraordinary number of sharp teeth, Aerosaurus (“Air Lizard”) was apparently an aggressive predator. Equipped with an unusually long and flat swimming tail, this young pelycosaur probably preyed on fish as well as on smaller, slower reptiles and amphibians. Although undoubtedly cold-blooded, because of their specialized bone structure the archaic synapsid reptiles are considered to be the ancestors of the therapsids, the later and more advanced reptile group that subsequently gave rise to warm-blooded mammals.

Some scientists have also noted affinities between the Early Permian pelycosaurs and the later Permian freshwater mesosaurs, the possible forerunners of the air-breathing, marine ichthyosaurs. Collected by Charles Camp and Samuel Welles in 1928 and identified by Wann Langston and Robert Reisz in 1981, this cluster of Early Permian specimens also contains the dissociated bones of various other reptiles and amphibians including an Eryops and an Edaphosaurus. University of California at Berkeley.

MAMMAL EVOLUTION: PELYCOSAUR THRU CYNODONT SYNTHESIS 2

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