The Last one on our list for the
Top 10 Countdown....
Mr. Thrinaxodon
Oh yeah, this creature shall be called Axel.
Thrin-axe-o-don
When did Axel live?
Early Triassic (250-245 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 20 inches long and a few pounds
Diet: Meat Eater (check out his teeth)
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Cat-like or badger-like profile. MAybe even had a coat of fur.
About Thrinaxodon:
Axel was amazingly "modern" by early Triassic standards. Paleontologists believe this cynodont (a or mammal-like reptile that preceded the dinosaurs)
may have been covered in fur, and also may have had a moist, cat-like
nose. Completing the resemblance to modern pets, it's possible that Alex sported whiskers as well (and for all we know, orange and
black stripes).
What paleontologists can say for sure is that Alex was among the first creatures whose body was divided into "lumbar" and "thoracic" segments (an important evolutionary anatomical development), and that it probably breathed with the aid of a diaphragm, yet another feature that didn't come fully into mammalian vogue until tens of millions of years later.
What paleontologists can say for sure is that Alex was among the first creatures whose body was divided into "lumbar" and "thoracic" segments (an important evolutionary anatomical development), and that it probably breathed with the aid of a diaphragm, yet another feature that didn't come fully into mammalian vogue until tens of millions of years later.
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