Leroy The Edaphosaurus!

[dinodigger]

Hey gang,

Finally getting around to posting an update on the newest skeleton. Still finding time to dig everyday for at least two hours during the week and full dig days on the weekend. And run the museum. And give tours. And make lunch. And sleep one hour a week. But whose complaining...

Daphy Valley is turning out to be a pretty intense area; loaded with bone. We have over a dozen microsites now in the valley with at least 4 Edaphosaurs in mixed articulation and completeness. We have 5 Daphy humeri now, ranging from infant to big adult. The ontogeny studies they will provide is going to be great. Planning on having a least two or three thin sections taken to check on growth cycles. Should be fun to see how they were aging.

Leroy is the newest skeleton I found about two weeks ago. Started with a single vert peeping out from the soil. Turned out to be 4 articulated lumbars. After jacketing and getting into the lab, it turns out the verts had rolled, so the neural spines were pointing straight down and were attached in the jacket. TOO COOL. Last few days we have two more sections of articulated verts and ton of neural spine crossbar pieces that are slowly going together. Nifty. Boy these guys were weird. Why the heck do they need to invest in soooo muuuchhh bone??? And the knobby spines were dense!! GEEZZ. Makes 'em so heavy... dunno. Cope said they were fer power sailing. Probably.

Unlike many of the previous photos I've attached, these are a bit harder to visualize. The bones have caliche on them making them a bit ugly... but. We can see that the critter was rotting on the surface of the ground, allowing for the soils to do their damage. Luckily the caliche will prep under a needle.

Daphy Valley is the first evidence in the Arroyo formation that shows these guys were living communally. Babies, terrible teens, and adults all living together. Eryops is all over the place too; understandably. This correlates with other formation Daphy beds. Both critters living nearby. Daphys near the vegetation on the river bank, and Eryops further in the water system, sticking close to the swampier parts. So far, hundreds of shed Eryops teeth, lots of bones including skull, femurs, ribs by the bucketload, toes (love amphibian toes) and other misc. pieces. Nice skull parts under a jacket now, need to get it out soon.

OKEYDOKEY

Thats all for now...

Best,

Chris

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45026327@N05/sets/72157647534844609/

[Auspex]

The site sounds like it was subject to either scavenger negligence or scavenger scarcity. Where's the cleanup crew?

[dinodigger]

The site sounds like it was subject to either scavenger negligence or scavenger scarcity. Where's the cleanup crew?

I know right??!

Yeah this is a puzzle. We have a full community of Edaphosaurs; all vegimuhtaerians. The only predominant carnivore is the Eryops living close by, but we know he was a fish eater, as well as an occasional small amphib or rept. But yeah, no signs of big carnivores. Daphy valley is full of daphys, and the other ranch down the road is full of Dimetrodons. These guys were SEGREGATED!! YIKES! One side has all carnivores, the other all herbivores. In daphy valley, we don't have a single DDon. Not. A. Single. Shed. Tooth.

Why these guys segregated themselves so blatantly, who knows. I don't think they were being dragged back to a feeding ground. We'd have evidence of it. Even slight. A tooth here or there, or even a bit of ddon fin spine that got bit off in defense.

The sharks are present in daphy valley as well, no surprise there. They probably fed on the remains of the big daphys after they died, but did not attack. Just didn't have the capacity.

So far no pathologies on any of the bones, that may suggest predations. Small wormlike grooves on the daphy bones appear to be related to roots or probably beetles scavenging. Of the 5 humeri from daphy's we've seen, all are missing the proximal end; the broken end is pretty caliche-fied so its going to be some time before we get them prepped and have a good look to see if there are any shear marks. 5 distal humeri and no proximal ends is intriguing though...

CF

[Auspex]

Dimetrodons did eat Edaphosaurs, right? Maybe what we have in Daphy Valley is a population that the Dimetrodons couldn't get to...an island in the braided river guarded by deep, swift-flowing water?

[dinodigger]

Dimetrodons did eat Edaphosaurs, right? Maybe what we have in Daphy Valley is a population that the Dimetrodons couldn't get to...an island in the braided river guarded by deep, swift-flowing water?

We think so... why wouldn't Ddon want to munch on a daphy. Its got tremendous guts. 500 pounds for a big daphy or more.

The stream channel system all over the ranches are pretty extensive ranging from high energy with massive conglomerates to finely bedded sandstones. I'm willing to believe there is a geographic barrier going on but geez these guys are literally living next door to one another. Red rover red rover... can Daphy come over (so we can eat his face.)

We are seeing the sharks in the low energy sandstones; pretty clear they are living there. Large sheets of shark skulls and cartilage are pretty common. Plus the eryops shed teeth and bones, everybody is at home here. Daphys just out of the waters edge. But some of the high energy massive conglomerate beds within a quarter mile suggest a frighteningly violent current pushing softball size concretions around, so yeah I would see ddon avoiding that. The George ddon is a mile away from the daphy sites; preserved in the high energy conglomerates. Swept in after death.

Its a conspiracy I tell ya...

CF

[Texas Fossil Hound]

The Texas Permian is such a remarkable place! Is there a place we can visit your progress on cleaning or excavating?

Jon

[dinodigger]

Absolutely!come by the museum anytime. Be glad to give you the tour. It's the Whiteside Museum of Natural History in seymour, texas.

[Pterodactyl]

This place sounds amazing! I love the incredible stuff! 😃

[Carl]

Yum...