abbyhoward

Extinct Creatures #4

Added 2016-07-01 18:38:30 +0000 UTC

For those of you who long for the days when all your dinosaurs were naked and covered in scutes, I have just the archosaur for you! (And next week, too.)

This is Postosuchus, which lived in the late Triassic. There was a mass extinction around the end of the Paleozoic/beginning of the Triassic which wiped out most of the big land creatures, leaving those niches open. By the end of the Triassic, the niches had been filled by archosaurs, a group which includes pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and modern crocs. It also includes a lot of groups that have no modern relatives and only had a few members each (such as the aetosaurs), and Postosuchus belongs to one such group.

So despite its appearance, this guy does not evolve into a crocodile! Its group died out after the end of the Triassic.

Also, I think I made its neck too long. Anyway, I hope you're having a nice time! I've been getting things ready for the move and it has been quite the task. Tuesday, I'll be starting the long trip to Boston, and I am pretty excited, but wish I had more time to get work done.

Thank you all for your continued donations, they mean the world to me!