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The Whiteside Museum of Natural History - August 2022
ThePhysicist posted a topic in A Trip to the Museum
During the Summer, I had the fortune of driving near Seymour, TX and thus the opportunity to pay a visit to the WMNH. The WMNH is a small but unique museum in Northern Texas, specializing in the Early Permian fauna that lived nearby ~ 290 million years ago in the famous Texas "red beds." The land around Seymour was once an equatorial bayou, humid and inundated with rivers and lakes. In the rivers were lungfish like those that live today, various ray-finned fishes, and cartilaginous fish like the Xenacanth "sharks." Amphibians like Eryops, Seymouria, and Diplocaulus also spent much of their lives in the water, but were capable of venturing onto land. The most famous not-a-dinosaur Dimetrodon was the terrestrial apex predator, living among other stem-mammals like Edaphosaurus and Secodontosaurus. Early Dinosaurs and mammals were still tens of millions of years in the future. Most of these interesting animals are rarely found in museums, so the chance to see so many of them in one building was an uncommon privilege. Outside the building, a larger-than-life Dimetrodon stands watch over the murals. The building is also lined with large Ammonites. an Eryops tries to find some shade Inside, there are several life reconstructions of some of these animals, the first one being Dimetrodon The first of several Dimetrodon individuals, "Bonnie" The red matrix has been coated with a dark grey material to increase contrast with the bones. There is a partial Diplocaulus amphibian skull in its belly Something I hadn't known: Dimetrodon may have been venomous?? I look forward to the publication of the evidence A couple of large Eryops, their skulls were comparable in size to those of large Alligators Various skeletal elements 1. D. grandis femur, 2. Dimetrodon sp. femur, 3. Edaphosaurus pogonius tibia, 4. Dimetrodon sp. tibia, 5. Edaphosaurus pelvis, 6. Dimetrodon sp. pelvis, 7. Secodontosaurus pelvis Diadectes, a herbivorous tetrapod incisorform and molariform teeth indicate it was capable of stripping and masticating vegetation, a novel development among tetrapods of the time. It also had a secondary palate like we do, meaning it could chew and breathe simultaneously. Diplocaulus, the "boomerang-headed" amphibian Dimetrodon elements Neural spine with a pathology, a healed break possibly from the attack of another Dimetrodon Maxilla with a broken canine, proposed to be broken in life Pelvis with bite marks, possible evidence of cannibalism Another Dimetrodon Some plants- 7 replies
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Hey gang, been a while since I got the chance to post- the Whiteside Museum is rockin and rollin- we've entertained nearly 9000 guests since our opening 18 months ago. Woohoo!! Field work has been non-stop. I am visiting 5 ranches on regular basis now- one ranch has 4 quarries all stratigraphicaly correlated with some of the greatest concentrations of the big-bodied amphibian Eryops- plus an overwhelming amount of disarticulated Edaphosaurus remains in the same bed. One of the photos shows a great Daphy rib lying on the bedding plane of an old swamp. Still prepping the Jody Diadectes skull- going to be one of the most complete on record. Sitting next to it in the massive block is a fantastic proximal caudal- and next to that as of noon, a beautiful Diadectes incisor, no doubt fallen from the skull. Anyhoo, if you haven't been to the museum, please come by and check out the exhibits and our new research lab. Cheers and happy digging, Chris https://www.flickr.com/photos/45026327@N05/albums/72157662658279792
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