#arizonasaurus

here's this week's #Paleostream flocking sketches!!!

this week we sketched Arizonasaurus, Ozimek, Cyonosaurus, and Henodus

My Mesozoic is Lime Green!

Dromaeosauroides - Ceratosuchops / Baryonyx - Arizonasaurus

Jakapil - Champsosaurus - Plateosaurus

Torosaurus - Alioramus - Dimorphodon

Inawentu - Zalmoxes - Fukuiraptor

Results from the Flocking #paleostream

Triassic Only Flocking Together

Arizonasaurus/Ozimek

#Archovember Day 20 - Arizonasaurus babbitti

The Ctenosauriscids were a strange group of pseudosuchians who did the whole “sail” thing looooong before Spinosaurus was even a thought. And in the Middle Triassic of North America, the ctenosauriscid Arizonasaurus babbitti was likely an apex predator. As it was closely related to the bipedal Poposaurids, it was probably also bipedal, looking a lot like a miniature, crocodilian form of Spinosaurus.

It is unknown what this sail was used for, but theories about other sail-backed archosaurs can surely be applied to Arizonasaurus. Edaphosaurus’ sail seems to have been mainly used for thermoregulation, while Dimetrodon’s sail may have also been used for display. Ouranosaurus had a sail which may have been a hump used for fat storage. Even some amphibians had sails, such as the temnospondyl Platyhystrix, and it was probably used for thermoregulation. Even some modern day reptiles, like the basilisk lizard, have sails on their backs. So for sailbacks to keep popping up every so often, there must be a reason… and for now, we don’t know exactly what that reason is.

Arizonasaurus would have shared Middle Triassic Arizona with a variety of temnospondyls, dicynodonts, and the rhyncosaur Ammorhynchus.