Dimetrodon
by Nick S.
My animal is a Synapsid that has a fin on its back that scares predators away, attracts mates, and warms the body. The Dimetrodon looks like a komodo dragon with a fin on its back and eats meat. It lived on land in the late Paleozoic Era. The Dimetrodon used his fin to warm up his body when he was in the sun. The Dimetrodon is a close relative to mammals.
The Dimetrodon has evolved a lot of different traits. The first trait that the Dimetrodon evolved was that it was a Vertebrate, which means it evolved a back bone and a skull. Then next is Gnathostomes, which means it evolved a jaw. Then are the Tetrapods, which means that it evolved four limbs. The second to last are the Amniotes which means it evolved a water tight egg, which means the Dimetrodon can lay its eggs on land and they would not dry out like the eggs that can only be laid in the water. The last trait that the Dimetrodon evolved was that he was a Synapsid, which means it evolved two holes behind the eye sockets in the skull.
The closest relative to the Dimetrodon on our cladogram is the animals in between the Thylacosmilus and the Irish Elk. The most advanced trait they share is they are synapsids. I looked at the closest node which was the Synapsids and everything that branches from the Synapsids node is a close relative to the Dimetrodon. The biggest difference between the Dimetrodon and those animals is that they all are mammals except for the Dimetrodon. To find this out I went down to the closest node and all of the animals that had the same trait as the Dimetrodon were its closest relatives.
The animal that is closest related to the Dimetrodon at the AMNH is the Edaphosaurus. I used the cladogram at the AMNH to find the closest relative by looking at the closest node connecting to the Dimetrodon. A trait that they share is that they both have a boney plate at the back of the lower jaw. I found this out by finding the closest node to the two animals. The Dimetrodon ate 90% of its prey and the other 10% is the waste.
Last updated April 7, 2007.