Dimetrodon, meaning "two measures of teeth" was a predatory synapsid genus that flourished during the Permian period, living between 280–265 million years ago (Artinskian to Capitanian stages). It was more closely related to mammals than to true reptiles such as lizards. It is classified as a pelycosaur. Fossils of Dimetrodon have been found in North America and Europe.
Dimetrodon had a spectacular sail on its back, which may have been used for regulating body temperature or for display.
In popular culture
In many popular culture references, Dimetrodon is often erroneously seen as a dinosaur or as living alongside dinosaurs.
A composite of Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon fossils went on display in 1907 in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, presented by the curator of vertebrate paleontology Henry Fairfield Osborn and illustrated in the pages of Scientific American (May 1907) as "Naosaurus," by scientific illustrator Charles R. Knight.
Dimetrodon's film debut was in 1959 in the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth. The members of the Lindenbrook's expedition encounter a herd of Dimetrodons on the beach of a subterranean ocean. At first the hungry Dimetrodons try to kill them. But when Hans kills one Dimetrodon with spears, the herd starts eating the killed Dimetrodon; and pays no attention to the humans who move a raft in the water. Lindenbrook claims that Dimetrodons can't swim.
Dimetrodon has also been featured in various television programs. In the 1974 television series Land of the Lost, a very large Dimetrodon (about 26 feet or 8 m long) named "Torchy" first appeared in the Season 3 episode "Cornered." Somehow, Torchy could breathe fire and would often eat coal to stoke his internal furnace, leading him to fight with the show's female Allosaurus, "Big Alice," and winning.
A Dimetrodon was briefly seen in The Land Before Time. It is shown sporting a forked tongue common to snakes.
The Dimetrodon was seen in the Disney movie Fantasia (1940)during its segment "The Rite of Spring."
In the television documentary Walking With Monsters (called Before the Dinosaurs in the United States), baby Dimetrodon were shown hatching with sails, fully independent. In fact, no Dimetrodon eggs have yet been found and it is entirely possible that the sail, which would be hard to store in an egg, was either absent or not rigid upon hatching. Hatchlings were portrayed sprinting towards trees after hatching in order to escape cannibalistic adults, behaviors based on the modern Komodo Dragon. Dimetrodon was also shown as having an egg-laying style similar to the modern crocodile, though no evidence regarding Dimetrodon reproduction has ever actually been found. Similarly, Dimetrodon were shown to eat 90% of a carcass whereas lions would eat 70, and were also shown not to stand dung, to the point that they would only eat intestines after shaking out the waste inside.
There are several species of Dimetrodon (the last name is the person who named it. The first Dimetrodon was named by Edward Drinker Cope):
D. angelensis Olson, 1962
D. booneorum Romer, 1937
D. dollovianus Cope, 1888
D. fritillus Cope, 1878
D. giganhomogenes Case, 1907
D. gigas Sternberg, 1942
D. grandis Case, 1907
D. limbatus Cope, 1877
D. loomisi Romer, 1937
D. macrospondylus Cope, 1884
D. milleri Romer, 1937
D. natalis Cope, 1877
D. occidentalis Berman, 1977
D. platycentrus Case, 1907
D. teutonis Berman, Reisz, Martens & Henrici, 2001
Cave canem
The entry on Dimetrodon in its first paragraph in Dinosaurs, Igloo, 2006 says "The name Dimetrodon was given by Edward Drinker Cope in 1884 and means "two measured teeth."
The last paragraph of the entry says, "The first Dimetrodon fossil was discovered in 1887."
This just goes to show that you can't take references for granted. I'll have to do some more research on this, using actual books instead of internet sources, to find out when the first Dimetrodon was found (as well as when the subsequent ones were found.) Or, it may be that the early year is for when the bones were found (by dinosaur diggers hired by Cope), but it wasn't examined and named until 1884. I shall find out.
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