#wtf-permian

Gordodon kraineri

This is the first in a bunch of palaeoartworks I’m producing for @wtf-permian, in preparation for this year’s Permian March Madness! I’ll post these as I draw them up to the start of Permian March Madness to bring y’all up to speed with some of our contestants!

First up, Gordodon! A close relative of the more famous Edaphosaurus, Gordodon is one of the earliest examples of land vertebrates beginning to specialise into different dietary niches! In the Carboniferous period, land vertebrates were mostly small omnivores, but in the Permian they started to diversify into all kinda of absolutely wild forms. 

Gordodon was once of these, with a rather buck-toothed set of jaws that might have been used for nipping off bits of vegetation! It’s also one of the earlier examples of sail-backed pelycosaurs, a group that would go on to produce Dimetrodon, which will not be making an appearance in Permian March Madness because it’d probably win on star power alone and that’s not what we’re about!