One of the largest temmnospondyls ever to exist: the gigantic Koolasuchus was also the last non-lissamphibian temnospondyl to exist. It survived into the Early Cretaceous of Australia when all other stereospondyls were long gone

#temnospondyls #paleoart

Is a modification to this developmental sequence responsible for the presence of sulci rather than roofed canals among stereospondyls? And what other kinds of modifications to this developmental sequence may have been possible? I would argue definitively...Probably? More work needs to be done!

#temnovember2024 day 25: Trucheosaurus
Day 25 of #temnovember and its time for an odd one, #Trucheosaurus, a basal #Rhytidosteid from the late #permian of Australia, notable for been one the only permian member of its family as well as one of the oldest deribed #stereospondyls

Lateral line canals in ray-finned fish tend to following a specific sequence that concludes after or near the end of a larval stage resulting in the integration of the canal neuromasts into canals. But these begin formation as a series of disconnected segments. 📸 Pastana et al. (2019)

We continue to see the multi-pronged refutation of the hypothesis that caecilians are descended from a different group of temnospondyls (stereospondyls) than frogs + salamanders. Marjanovic et al. have a lengthy review of this hypothesis that builds on previous work. doi.org/10.3897/fr.2...

Frog-like calls? Depends on the taxon. Dissorophoids probably yes. Most stereospondyls probably no. Or if they did, it wouldn't have been in our audible range, based on typanum structure (or lack thereof) and stapedial robustness.

More size charts, these showing the clades with the largest (65+ cm skull length) and smallest (<1 cm skull length) published specimens

checking out the stereospondyls dinosaur @ amer museum of nat'l history. https://twitpic.com/4glpth