Description
- Edaphosaurus
- Lower Permian Age
- “Red Beds”
- Archer County, Texas
- This RARE Claw measures approx. 11/16″ long and will come in a 1.5″ Gem Jar as Shown
Edaphosaurus is a genus of extinct edaphosaurid synapsid that lived around 300 to 280 million years ago, during the late Carboniferous to early Permian periods.
Edaphosaurus is important as one of the earliest known large plant-eating (herbivorous) amniote tetrapods (four-legged land-living vertebrates). In addition to the large tooth plates in its jaws, the most characteristic feature of Edaphosaurus is a sail on its back. A number of other synapsids from the same time period also have tall dorsal sails, most famously the large apex predator Dimetrodon. However, the sail on Edaphosaurus is different in shape and morphology. The first fossils of Edaphosaurus came from the Texas Red Beds in North America, with later finds in New Mexico, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Ohio. Fragmentary fossils attributed to Edaphosaurus also have been found in the Czech Republic and in Germany in Central Europe.
