Sailboats were among the first giant animals to appear. Image: Adobe Stock
Dinosaurs inhabited the Earth about 240 million years ago, during the period known as the Triassic Period (251 to 201 million years ago). It is widely believed that they were the first large creatures to inhabit the planet. However, it was not. So, who showed up before?
Creatures over three meters tall, with large heads, that walked on all fours and looked like dragons, dominated the world 290 million years ago: synapses. These are reptiles with water-repellent skin, and are characterized by the presence of a hole in the skull, details an article in the journal Cosmos. Despite their age, some of these mighty beasts looked more like mammals than dinosaurs.
Gorgonopsids were among the last to emerge. Photo: Gondwana Studios
Among the first synapsids to appear are the so-called pelycosaurs. Among them, it was the most common sail inLike Edaphosaurus. Studies show that this element found in the body of these beasts would have helped them warm up and cool down.
Then he appeared there Therapsids, another type of synapsids, whose features were similar to the currently known mammals: due to the location of their four legs – vertically under their body – and their teeth. Unlike reptiles, these animals had distinct incisors, fangs, and molars.
It is estimated that some therapsids had fur and were warm-blooded. Photo: Nobuo Tamura
Towards the middle of this period, known as the Permian period (from 299 million to 251 million years ago), it was bicephalic. These creatures were herbivorous, reaching five meters in length and weighing up to two tons. However, its passage was short because its last traces date back 270 million years ago.
Among the most recent registered treatments are Gorgonopsids, a giant carnivore characterized by large, powerful jaws and sword-like teeth. These organisms are considered the last before the mass extinction period at the end of the Permian period.
Huge heads
After the Permian period and even before the advent of the dinosaurs, other creatures also appeared: the Erythrosuchidae, which are also called “red crocodiles”. They are probably the best known diploids, which – unlike synapses – are characterized by two openings in the bones behind the skull.
Carnivores were one of the creatures that lived before the dinosaurs. Photo: Mark Whitton
The remains of one of these species, called Garjainia, were found in Russia and described in an article in Royal Society for Open Science. These prehistoric animals were similar to the Komodo dragons that exist today, but they were about three meters long. It is estimated that their heads were massive compared to their bodies, which could be related to their role as the major predators of their time.
The presence of an oversized skull was a general feature of erythropods, but it is also thought to be a feature of other archosaurs—creatures that appeared later—suggesting their overly carnivorous nature.
“Our results show that erythropods seem to have disproportionately large skulls, but that this is also true of other primitive archosaurs (i.e., the Proterosuchids), and may reflect the invasion of hyper-carnivorous niches by these groups after the Permo-Triassic (252 million years ago)” , to the aforementioned study by the Royal Society for Open Science.
