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Edaphosauridae

 
Edaphosauridae

 
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Edaphosauridae
 
 
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The Edaphosauridae are a family of mostly large (up to 3 meters or more) advanced, Late Pennsylvanian to early Permian pelycosaurs.

They were the earliest known herbivorous
Herbivore

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
 amniotes, and along with the Diadectidae
Diadectidae

Diadectidae are a family of large reptile-like tetrapods that lived in Euramerica during the Carboniferous and Cisuralian periods. They are the very first herbivore tetrapods to appear, and also the first fully terrestrial animals to attain large size....
 the earliest known herbivorous tetrapod
Tetrapod

Tetrapods are vertebrate animals having four feet, legs or leglike appendages. Amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs/birds, and mammals are all tetrapods, and even the limbless snakes are tetrapods by descent....
s. The head is small in relation to the bulky body, and there is a tall sail along the back, which may have functioned as a thermoregulatory
Thermoregulation

Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its core temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different....
 device. The advanced genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 Edaphosaurus
Edaphosaurus

Edaphosaurus was a primitive herbivore pelycosaur. Along with the Diadectidae, Edaphosaurus is one of the earliest known plant-eating tetrapods ....
 was unique in that its "sail" possessed short bony cross bars.

Edaphosaur fossils are so far known only from North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
.








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The Edaphosauridae are a family of mostly large (up to 3 meters or more) advanced, Late Pennsylvanian to early Permian pelycosaurs.

They were the earliest known herbivorous
Herbivore

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
 amniotes, and along with the Diadectidae
Diadectidae

Diadectidae are a family of large reptile-like tetrapods that lived in Euramerica during the Carboniferous and Cisuralian periods. They are the very first herbivore tetrapods to appear, and also the first fully terrestrial animals to attain large size....
 the earliest known herbivorous tetrapod
Tetrapod

Tetrapods are vertebrate animals having four feet, legs or leglike appendages. Amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs/birds, and mammals are all tetrapods, and even the limbless snakes are tetrapods by descent....
s. The head is small in relation to the bulky body, and there is a tall sail along the back, which may have functioned as a thermoregulatory
Thermoregulation

Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its core temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different....
 device. The advanced genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 Edaphosaurus
Edaphosaurus

Edaphosaurus was a primitive herbivore pelycosaur. Along with the Diadectidae, Edaphosaurus is one of the earliest known plant-eating tetrapods ....
 was unique in that its "sail" possessed short bony cross bars.

Edaphosaur fossils are so far known only from North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
.

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