Dimetrodon limbatus Skull Replica

$1,500.00

Single openings in the skull behind each eye, known as temporal fenestrae, and other skull features distinguish Dimetrodon and true mammals from most of the earliest sauropsids.

Description

Dimetrodon limbatus Skull Replica is Museum quality polyurethane resin cast, made in the USA. Dimetrodon limbatus skull replica measures 16.9x 10 x 11 inches. Price includes metal skull mount. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

Dimetrodon limbatus meaning “two measures of teeth” is an extinct genus of synapsids that lived during the Early Permian, around 295–272 million years ago. The most prominent feature of Dimetrodon is the large neural spine sail on its back formed by elongated spines extending from the vertebrae.

It walked on four legs and had a tall, curved skull with large teeth of different sizes set along the jaws. A single large opening on either side of the back of the skull links Dimetrodon limbatus with mammals and distinguishes it from most of the earliest sauropsids, which either lack openings or have two openings.

Features such as ridges on the inside of the nasal cavity and a ridge at the back of the lower jaw are thought to be part of an evolutionary progression from early four-limbed land-dwelling vertebrates to mammals.

The skull of Dimetrodon limbatus is tall and compressed laterally, or side-to-side. The eye sockets are positioned high and far back in the skull. Behind each eye socket is a single hole called an infratemporal fenestra.

An additional hole in the skull, the supratemporal fenestra, can be seen when viewed from above. The back of the skull is oriented at a slight upward angle, a feature that it shares with all other early synapsids. The upper margin of the skull slopes downward in a convex arc to the tip of the snout.

The tip of the upper jaw, formed by the premaxilla bone, is raised above the part of the jaw formed by the maxilla bone to form a maxillary “step.” Within this step is a diastema, or gap in the tooth row. Its skull was more heavily built than a dinosaur’s.

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Additional information

Weight 25 lbs
Dimensions 16.9 × 10 × 11 in
Dimetrodon limbatus Facts

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Family: †Sphenacodontidae
Subfamily: †Sphenacodontinae
Genus: †Dimetrodon
Type species: †Dimetrodon limbatus