Synapsid Magnets
Description: Dimetrodon was part of a group known as known as mammal-like reptiles or stem-mammals. While they share many traits with modern reptiles and modern mammals they are neither, but are part of the overall group called Synapsids that includes all modern mammals (even humans like you). While it is often associated with dinosaurs in popular media these sail-backed quadripeds are much older than that group and are most closely related to us than they are to dinosaurs. Dimetrodon main defining traits include a very distinctive sail supported by extensive neural spins, as well as a set of differentiating teeth that were clearly evolved to different uses, something we and most modern mammals share.
Description: Estemmenosuchus mirabilis was a genus of therapsid that lived during the Middle Permian (267 million years ago). Found in what is now the Perm region of Russia in the 1960s, both of the currently recognized species: E. uralensis and E. mirabilis are most recognizable from their distinctive knobby, antler-like facial structures; these structures are in face where they get their name which means "crowned crocodile."
