Temnospondyls Daily

I have a love for temnospondyls and want to learn about more of them while also sharing them with other people!

What are temnospondyls?

Temnospondyls are a large and diverse clade of early tetrapods that were prominent during the carboniferous-triassic periods (and some lived on into the jurassic and cretaceous!) They range in size, and include the largest amphibian to ever exist! They're really fun and you really want to learn more about them

I will strive to post about one temnospondyl (or maybe other beast on ocassion) each day, that could be highlighting a species or genus, art, a paper, or some other fun thing!

I really love temnospondyls and other Carboniferous-Triassic beasts, feel free to submit anything related or requests for a specific guy!

Please note that I am not an expert, I am merely a geo student planning to go into paleo in my future and I might get some things wrong!

What a name! The Beast of Lesotho is a giant (up to 7m in length) brachipoidea temnospondyl that would have rivaled other large temnospondyls like prionosuchus and mastodonsaurus in size!

The actual species is unnamed, and is called the Beast of Lesotho known from a fragmentary specimen found in Lesotho

It lived during the Triassic and Jurassic periods and would have probably been mostly aquatic

I've got a weird little guy for you all today! Its name is Gerrothorax (plated chest) and it is a genus of temnospondyl from the triassic period (specifically middle to late triassic)

The type species is Gerrothorax pulcherrimus

Fossil from the Naturmuseum Senckenburg in Frankfurt, Germany

Despite calling it little, its actually about 1 meter in length.

This is a flat beast, and its flattened body with eyes on the top of its skull suggests that it lived at the bottom of freshwater water bodies like lakes. It would have caught prey by lifting its head, and may have even used suction feeding.

Unlike other temnospondyls, gerrothorax retains its gills into adulthood! This means it would have been mostly aquatic rather than semi-aquatic!

Paleoart by Victor Silva

Prionosuchus is a genus from the early Permian period of Brazil and is a very large temnospondyl with estimates of it growing 6-9 meters long!

These estimates are based on skull length, with one skull measuring over a meter in length alone

Day 3 of daily temnospondyls!

Metoposaurus is a late triassic genus of the steryospondyli group of temnospondyls, and is a pretty large temnospondyl at about 3m. Like other temnospondyls, they probably had a diet consisting mostly of fish.

Metoposaurus would have been mosty aquatic, probably living in lakes.

Some members of this genus are also know to have suffered from scoliosis

A large temnospondyl from the early Permian that could possibly grow up to 9ft long

Skeleton on display at the AMNH

This species is found in the Texas red beds

It is believed that the adults of this species spent more time on land compared to other temnospondyls, but it still had a diet of primarily fish and would have lived near bodies of water such as lakes since their bodies aren’t as suited to swimming as other species, but show adaptations for a more terrestrial life style

(Temnospondyls are a large group of early tetrapods!)

Trematosaurus

Trematosaurus is a genus from the early Triassic, and was described in 1849!

They are found in what is modern day Germany and Russia

They have a slender skull with an elongate snout and probably preyed on fish

They are sometimes compared to modern day crocodiles

Art Credit: Dmitry Bogdanov