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Edaphosaurus (, meaning "pavement lizard" for dense clusters of its teeth) is a genus of extinct Edaphosauridae that lived in what is now North America and Europe around 303.4 to 272.5 million years ago, during the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian. The United States paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first described Edaphosaurus in 1882, naming it for the "dental pavement" on both the upper and lower jaws, from the Greek language edaphos έδαφος ("ground"; also "pavement")An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1889. "ἔδαφος edaphos... 2. The ground-floor, pavement..." [1] and σαῦρος ( sauros) ("lizard").
Edaphosaurus is important as one of the earliest-known, large, plant-eating (herbivorous), amniote tetrapods (four-legged land-living vertebrates). In addition to the large tooth plates in its jaws, the most characteristic feature of Edaphosaurus is a sail on its back. A number of other synapsids from the same time period also have tall dorsal sails, most famously the large apex predator Dimetrodon. However, the sail on Edaphosaurus is different in shape and morphology. The first fossils of Edaphosaurus came from the Texas Red Beds in North America, with later finds in New Mexico, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Ohio. Fragmentary fossils attributed to Edaphosaurus have also been found in eastern Germany in Central Europe.
The recently described Melanedaphodon from the Middle Pennsylvanian subperiod of the Carboniferous Period in North America is currently the earliest known edaphosaurid and represents a transitional stage from a diet of hard-shelled invertebrates such as insects and mollusks to fibrous plants. Melanedaphodon had large and bulbous teeth along its upper and lower jaws, but also had "a moderately-developed tooth battery" on its palate, "which appears intermediary towards the condition seen in Edaphosaurus" and would have helped process tough plant material. Melanedaphodon was found to be a sister taxon to Edaphosaurus and lived earlier than the edaphosaurid Ianthasaurus, which lacked tooth plates and ate insects.
/ref> Evidence of growth rates include the number of blood vessels in the bones (with more vascularization in the rapidly growing Dimetrodon) and the presence of lamellar bone in the cancellous part. In contrast to slow growth in overall body size and in most bones, the histology of the tall dorsal spines on Edaphosaurus suggests that the projecting bony tubercles developed "by sudden, rapid growth over a few seasons", unlike the incremental growth of the tubercles in the earlier edaphosaurid Ianthasaurus.
In 1886, Cope erected the new genus Naosaurus "ship lizard" (from Greek naos "ship") for skeletal remains similar to those of the long-spined Dimetrodon, but with distinctive "transverse processes or branches, which resemble the yardarms of a ship's mast". He speculated that "the yardarms were connected by membranes with the neural spine or mast, thus serving the animal as a sail with which he navigated the waters of the Permian lakes". He recognized three species: Naosaurus claviger "club-bearer" (for the projections on its spines; now considered a synonym of Edaphosaurus pogonias); Naosaurus cruciger "cross-bearer" (for the projections on its spines; first described by Cope as Dimetrodon cruciger in 1878; now Edaphosaurus cruciger, the largest species in size); and Naosaurus microdus "small tooth" (first described as Edaphosaurus microdus in 1884). Cope noted some incomplete skull material found associated with the specimens of N. claviger and N. microdus, but thought Naosaurus was distinct from Edaphosaurus. He later decided that Naosaurus must have had a large carnivorous skull similar to Dimetrodon, although he had no direct fossil proof. In 1910, German paleontologist Otto Jaekel reported remains near Dresden in Saxony, which he called Naosaurus credneri.
In 1907, American paleontologist Ermine Cowles Case suggested in his monograph on the Pelycosauria (pages 145 and 146) that the skull of Edaphosaurus might belong with skeletons called Naosaurus, based on a specimen found in 1906 that appeared to associate elements of both. In 1913, Samuel Wendell Williston and Case described the new species Edaphosaurus novomexicanus from a fairly complete specimen unearthed in New Mexico in 1910, in which a sailbacked Naosaurus-type skeleton was found with a small Edaphosaurus-type skull. The older generic name Edaphosaurus Cope, 1882 became the valid one.
In 1940, paleontologists Alfred Sherwood Romer and Llewellyn Ivor Price named the new species Edaphosaurus boanerges ("thunderous orator")Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. Springfield, MA: C. & G. Merriam Co., 1913. Boanerges. – an ironic reference to the remarkably small size of the holotype lower jaw on a composite skeleton originally mounted in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University) with the head restored based on the larger species Edaphosaurus cruciger.
In 1979, paleontologist David Berman erected Edaphosaurus colohistion ("stunted sail") for an early species with a relatively small sail, based on fossils from West Virginia.
At the urging of paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, American paleoartist Charles R. Knight consulted with Edward Drinker Cope in person in early 1897 about a set of illustrations of prehistoric reptiles, one of Cope's specialties. Shortly after, Knight reconstructed Edaphosaurus (as " Naosaurus") with a Dimetrodon skull that Cope had previously referred to that genus in error. This painting was commissioned for the American Museum of Natural History in 1897 and was reprinted for Cope's obituary in the November 1898 issue of The Century Magazine. Knight later created a more accurate revised version of the painting that turned " Naosaurus" into Dimetrodon, with a corrected head and teeth, and a sail with smooth, unbarred spines. He also turned the Dimetrodon in the original background into Edaphosaurus (still called " Naosaurus" at the time) with a different head and a sail with crossbars.DimetrodonKnight.jpg
German paleontologist Otto Jaekel argued in 1905 that there was no direct scientific evidence that the tall dorsal spines on Dimetrodon and " Naosaurus" were bound in a web of skin like a sail or fin (as portrayed by Cope, Knight, and others) and proposed instead that the long bony projections served as an array of separated spines to protect the animals, which allegedly could roll up like hedgehogs. Spiny-backed reconstructions of " Naosaurus" (with a large carnivore's head) appeared in different German sources, including as a tile mosaic on the façade of the Aquarium Berlin in 1913 (destroyed in World War II and later recreated).
Nearly complete specimens of Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus (as " Naosaurus") had not been found yet by the first decade of the 20th century when American paleontologist E.C. Case produced his major monograph on the Pelycosauria in 1907. Case argued that the apparent lack of any associated elongate and cylindrical tail bones with the known fossils meant that Dimetrodon and " Naosaurus" must have had short tails in life. (Earlier, Cope had assumed that the animals had long tails as in most reptiles, an idea seen from his sketches and his advice to Charles R. Knight in 1897.) Based on the authority of Case, museums and artists at the time restored " Naosaurus" with a short tail. New fossil finds and research by A.S. Romer in the 1930s and 1940s showed that both Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus had long tails, a feature similar to other "pelycosaurs" and seen as primitive.
The American Museum of Natural History mounted the first full skeletal reconstruction of Edaphosaurus as " Naosaurus claviger" (a synonym of Edaphosaurus pogonias) for public display in 1907 under the scientific direction of H.F. Osborn, along with W.D. Matthew.Osborn, H.F. (1907) "A mounted skeleton of Naosaurus, a pelycosaur from the Permian of Texas". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 23(14): 265-270 http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/1423?show=full The main part of the " Naosaurus" skeleton was a set of dorsal vertebrae with high spines (AMNH 4015) from a partial Edaphosaurus pogonias specimen found by the fossil collector Charles H. Sternberg in Hog Creek, Texas in 1896. Because of the still incomplete knowledge of Edaphosaurus at the time, the rest of the mount was a "conjectural" composite of various real fossil bones collected in different places with other parts recreated in plaster, including a skull (AMNH 4081) based on Dimetrodon (per E.D. Cope, and despite Case's already expressed doubts about such a skull for " Naosaurus") and a hypothetical short tail (per Case). As " Naosaurus" was thought to be a close relative of Dimetrodon rather than Edaphosaurus, slender limbs (AMNH 4057) probably belonging to Dimetrodon dollovianus were also mounted with this composite specimen, rather than the correct, stockier limbs now known for Edaphosaurus. The big Dimetrodon-derived skull on the museum skeleton was later replaced with one modeled on Edaphosaurus cruciger, based on more updated research. The museum eventually dismantled the entire composite restoration and by the 1950s only displayed the original set of Edaphosaurus pogonias sail vertebrae alone on the wall in Brontosaur Hall next to an accurate, fully mounted fossil skeleton of the smaller species Edaphosaurus boanerges (a nearly complete specimen (AMNH 7003) collected from Archer County, Texas, by A.S. Romer in 1939).American Museum of Natural History. Division of Paleontology. Collection. Catalog number: FR 7003 [3] The fossil Edaphosaurus pogonias sail spines (AMNH 4015) were remounted in the 1990s with a recreated skull (but without other skeletal parts) in a metal armature shaped in the outline of the entire animal as part of the new Hall of Primitive Mammals, which opened at the American Museum of Natural History in 1996 after major renovations.Edaphosaurus_cross-hatching.jpg
Charles R. Knight had produced a small sculpture of a living " Naosaurus" in 1907 based on the speculative American Museum of Natural History mount. The model retained a Dimetrodon-like flesh-eater's head but differed from his earlier 1897 painted reconstruction in having a curved shape to the sail and a short tail.Extinct_monsters_and_creatures_of_other_days_.jpg
The May 4, 1907 issue of Scientific American
Beasley, W. L. 1907. "Naosaurus: a Fossil Wonder" Scientific American 96(18): 365, 368, 370 [4]
featured a cover painting by Knight depicting a revised version of " Naosaurus" and an article (pages 368 and 370) entitled " Naosaurus: a Fossil Wonder", which described the restoration of the composite skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History and the creation of Knight's model, both under Osborn's direction.
The inaccuracy of much of Osborn's composite reconstruction of " Naosaurus" was detailed by E.C. Case in 1914Case, E.C. (1914) "Restoration of Edaphosaurus cruciger Cope." The American Naturalist 48(566): 116-121 [5] with a revised description of Edaphosaurus based on additional fossil material, including large parts of a skeleton with limb bones and a crushed skull, which Case had discovered in Archer County, Texas, in 1912 and brought to the University of Michigan. His reconstruction of Edaphosaurus cruciger, as shown in a drawing, had a much smaller head (with teeth for crushing mollusks or plants), more robust limbs, and a somewhat longer tail than Osborn's carnivorous " Naosaurus" mount. Case also confirmed that Edaphosaurus was the valid name rather than " Naosaurus". Despite his corrections, the name " Naosaurus", and even the outdated and incorrect Dimetrodon-like head, continued to appear in some popular sources.
In 1926, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago hired Charles R. Knight to create a series of 28 murals Field Museum Photo Archives (worked on from 1926 through 1930) to depict life reconstructions of prehistoric animals in the different sections of the new fossil hall of the museum for Life Over Time. One of the large murals depicted the Permian Period, with a group of five Dimetrodons, and a single Edaphosaurus, along with a group of Casea, basking in the sun surrounded by a large marsh. The Permian mural was finished in 1930. Paleontologist Elmer Riggs described the new artistic addition in the March 1931 issue of the Field Museum News and used the name " Naosaurus" for Edaphosaurus, described as "inoffensive, and given to feeding on plants".Riggs, Elmer (1931) "New Mural Depicts Strange Reptiles Which Lived 215,000,000 Years Ago"
Artist Rudolph Zallinger depicted Edaphosaurus in a more scientifically updated form (with a long tail) alongside Dimetrodon and Sphenacodon to represent the Permian in his famous The Age of Reptiles mural (1943-1947) at the Yale Peabody Museum. Synapsids Sphenacodon, Dimetrodon, Edaphosaurus, and Ophiacodon in a Permian Period landscape as depicted by Rudolph Zallinger for The Age of Reptiles Mural at the Yale Peabody Museum in 1947. The mural was based on a smaller model version of the painting in egg tempera that later appeared in The World We Live In series published in Life magazine in 1952 to 1954. The September 7, 1953 issue of Life presented The Age of Reptiles in reverse image (earliest to latest, left to right) of the mural order as a double-sided foldout page in which Edaphosaurus appeared in an Early Permian landscapeBarnett, L. " The World We Live In: Part V The Pageant Of Life" (Sept. 7, 1953) Life, Vol. 35, No. 10: (Reptiles Inherit the Earth foldout pages) with plants and animals of the period. The magazine series was edited into a popular book in 1955 that also had a foldout page for Zallinger's The Age of Reptiles artwork." An Extraordinary Book". (May 9, 1955) Life, Vol. 38, No. 19, p. 157. Note that LIFE Magazine was a subsidiary of Time Inc. The book is thus cited as Time is also often cited as the publisher of the series.
The Czech illustrator and paleoartist Zdeněk Burian created a number of vivid paintings of Edaphosaurus set in Paleozoic landscapes. (The choice to portray Edaphosaurus was based in part on edaphosaurid fossils found in native Carboniferous rocks in what is now the Czech Republic, originally identified as " Naosaurus" and now called Bohemiclavulus.) These images appeared in the series of popular general audience books on prehistoric animals that Burian produced in collaboration with Czech paleontologists Josef Augusta and Zdeněk Špinar beginning in the 1930s and on into the 1970s. Some of the books were translated into other languages, including English. Burian's painting from 1941 restored Edaphosaurus with a large carnivorous head and short tail, reflecting an outdated " Naosaurus" concept of the animal. The artwork was featured in Josef Augusta's Divy prasvěta ( Wonders of the Prehistoric World), published during World War II in biweekly pamphlet form between 1941 and 1942, and then republished as a full book after the war.Muzeum 3000. " The Wonders of the Prehistoric World - Chronicle of Prehistoric Nature and Creation(July 10, 2014)" Burian subsequently corrected his 1941 Edaphosaurus reconstruction in a painting with the more accurate small head of a plant-eater and a long tail, Edaphosaurus as depicted by Z. Burian in 1942 and inaccurately in 1941 [11]Database of children's literature illustrators: Zdenek Burian: Modified illustrations and redrawn themes the version of Edaphosaurus that appeared in later translated editions of Burian's books with Augusta such as Prehistoric Animals (1956). Another painting of Edaphosaurus by Burian appeared on the cover of the 1968 third edition of the juvenile popular science book Ztracený svět ( The Lost World), also written by Augusta.Burian painting of Edaphosaurus, used on the cover of the 1968 Czech juvenile science book Ztracený svět ( The Lost World) [13] The book Life Before Man (1972), written by Zdeněk Špinar, included an additional depiction of Edaphosaurus by Burian.National Geographic: Permian Period: Photo Gallery:
Disney incorporated a pair of animatronic Edaphosaurus in the Ford Magic Skyway attraction for the 1964 New York World's Fair, which would go on to be relocated to Disneyland's Primeval World Diorama along the Disneyland Railroad and replicated for Epcot's Universe of Energy attraction and Tokyo Disneyland's Western River Railroad.
/ref> Knight's 1930 depiction of Edaphosaurus, apart from its shortened tail, was much more accurate than his earlier images of " Naosaurus" for the American Museum of Natural History, incorporating a small head and a curved profile to the sail spines.
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Categories: Edaphosauridae, Prehistoric Synapsid Genera, Carboniferous Synapsids Of North America, Cisuralian Synapsids Of Europe, Cisuralian Synapsids Of North America, Carboniferous United States, Permian United States, Taxa Named By Edward Drinker Cope, Fossil Taxa Described In 1882, Pennsylvanian Genus First Appearances, Cisuralian Genus Extinctions, Pennsylvanian Tetrapods Of North America
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