Teeth, claws and giant silhouettes. That’s what we see when we imagine prehistoric planets. However, until Chicxlav crashed the party, and until the dinosaurs rose to dominate the Earth, many animals lived there.
The same dinosaur fever that led some people to wonder if they still lived in the Congo has led most of us to completely forget that there are many species within paleontology. I’ll put it away. Born before dinosaurs walked the earth, began about 200 million years ago. Animals of the Permian Period lived from 299 million years ago to 251 million years ago, and included the first plant- and meat-eating giants to roam the Earth. .
Unfortunately, they too will see a tragic end, with about 90 percent of life on Earth becoming extinct due to mass extinction events, likely a result of climate change. It was known as the Permian Extinction, and some consider it the worst day for Earth, but that’s saying something because there was some evil going on.
The Permian period was home to amazing biodiversity, including animals that looked and sounded like dinosaurs, but were not actually dinosaurs. What comes to mind here is Dimetrodon (pictured above), a large log non-mammalian animal with a huge sail on its back. It is a monoapsid, a group of animals from the Permian and Triassic periods that over time began to show mammalian characteristics and eventually gave rise to early ancestors.
Image credit: Kostiantyn Ivanyshen/Shutterstock.com
We cannot touch a single bow body without a hat tip such as: Kochiro Links, This animal is best described as a bean-headed crocodile, with about seven more jaws than expected. With a barrel-shaped body and a wide, thick skull, it was an important part of the ecosystem as one of the earliest large herbivores.
Because they evolved as one of the two major clades of vertebrates, which evolved from basal amniotes, and therefore look a little like reptiles. Another group is the saurocephalians, which branch into reptiles and birds.
![Edaphosaurus standing on a rock. Edaphosaurus standing on a rock.](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/70731/iImg/70743/shutterstock_1702977637.jpg)
Edaphosaurus lived in what is now North America and Europe.
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If you like planks with sails, Edaphosaurus is another Permian monster that will surely pique your interest Edaphosaurus. It was up to 3.5 meters (11.5 ft) long and had a small head with large nail-like teeth that were perfect for crushing plants.
![Scootosaurus standing around. Scootosaurus standing around.](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/70731/iImg/70744/shutterstock_2098619395.jpg)
Scootosaurus looks intimidating, but it was kind of the Permian’s answer to cows.
Image credit: Esteban De Armas/Shutterstock.com
scootosaurus It was another herbivore from the Permian period. “But all these animals have ‘saurus’ in their names!” “Don’t you mean dinosaurs?” is heard. No, actually. Saurus means lizard and is seen used on many lizard-like dinosaurs (tyrannosaurus For example, it means a scary lizard).
antiquities scootosaurus With a stocky build and an intimidating size of up to 3 meters (approximately 9.8 feet), it looks like a formidable enemy covered in armor plates. However, this large arachnid reptile rivals that of a cow in size and lifestyle, and can wander long distances in search of fresh foliage.
![Inostrankevia stands and looks out over the terrain. Inostrankevia stands and looks out over the terrain.](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/70731/iImg/70745/shutterstock_2100604390.jpg)
Inostranchevia is a large carnivorous therapsid, known from two nearly complete specimens.
Image credit: Esteban De Armas/Shutterstock.com
The Permian certainly had predators, and the most impressive ones are: Inostrankevia – One of the largest and most frightening members of the group known as gorgonopsids. A major group of monoapsids, they were carnivorous predators with large, sharp canine teeth that looked like saber-toothed cats (though they would not evolve until hundreds of millions of years later). It is believed that they used them in a similar way, catching and tearing prey.
Inostrankevia At well over 3 meters (9.8 feet) long, it was one of the largest, with powerful limbs, a long, muscular tail, and a bulky body to boot. As the apex predator of the Permian, it would have fed on early reptiles and monoapsids, but its high status was not enough to save it from extinction in the Permian, and it remained in the Triassic, also known as the Permian. paved the way for the biodiversity boom we know. Rise of the dinosaurs.
We often think of extinction as the end of something, but in the bigger picture, extinction is an important part of life. Without a niche to fill, new life and species cannot emerge. Were it not for the explosive event that wiped out the Permian monster, we might never have had the Triassic giant.
And wasn’t there an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs? Well, we probably didn’t have internet.