Dimetrodon is Not A Dinosaur

[@BaronKrool]

Dimetrodon has been my favorite prehistoric animal since I was a kid. I knew it was older than dinosaurs and was somewhere on the mammal evolutionary track, but thanks to this video I've learned a bit about synapsids. And the realization that we humans can call ourselves related to it. So that's awesome to learn.

[@MathAndComputers]

Technically, you could be an ancestor of your cousin... I just don't want to think about it.

[@onlythequestion]

You've been watching too much "Dark" on Netflix ;)

[@Ohnogoblin]

I really appreciate the way she doesn't dumb down her videos. I learned so much from this vid, and I studied biology at uni! Super interesting, and really refreshing

[@JellyMach]

One time I closed the video before she said "it still has brains on it.." It feels wrong.

[@reeft]

You didn't just rip open that vintage toy, did you? Oh... Oh God...

[@devins7457]

I cringed when she did... still cringing and I will not be able to sleep tonight.

[@MauroRaptor86]

Let's forgive her...because her purpose was noble.

[@xINVISIGOTHx]

you can get that JP dimetrodon for like.... $7 on ebay. It's very common. I have several.

[@reeft]

It's not about the money, man.

[@burakka96]

it hurt my soul

[@xfindthefacts]

Can i just say that the new style (editing and format) is fantastic, keep it up guys!

[@Jezzy486]

Nothing says you're in for a good, educational time like a lady laughing with crocodile skulls in the intro

[@Earthmoover]

I think it's possible to be a descendant of your cousin in certain states in the south...

[@aulddragon]

So, what you're saying is... Mammals suck. :D

[@thebrainscoop]

Exactly.

[@CrunchyLikeness]

***** emily...! I do not suck........anymore

[@SciencenHistorydude]

***** Well, dinosaurs are awesome, after all.

[@brandonvillatuya9539]

Ha

[@piggyoinkoink6352]

Hey, to the synapsids' credit, they DID rule the earth millions of years before the dinosaurs did, and after a mass extinction and the dinosaurs' world domination, they bided their time as small fuzzy critters for the next 180 million years until the world was theirs for the taking once again.

[@Linkous12]

And Spinosaurus doesn't help the matter. Also, if you enjoy this topic, I highly recommend watching AronRa's short series of videos called "Falsifying Phylogeny"; very interesting and educational stuff!

[@flaviusclaudius7510]

Definitely second this! Also, the '10th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism' is a good one of his for cladograms as well.

[@lxUn1c0]

In every toy set, it's either this guy or a pterosaur trying to tag along with all the REAL dinosaurs.

[@SashaandStorm]

Or a sea creature of some sort.

[@inurb4se]

She looks blazed, check out how red her eyes are. Also the way she was giggling while holding the package was very endearing, you can tell she is stoked about dinosaurs.

[@Spanky8402]

my head felt like it exploded. I was told in school that they evolved into alligators and crocodiles. lol. I didn't think that it was correct but internet wasn't a thing back then. I was reading a few articles about this subject and I decided to look up a video and I found this one. you explained everything great and I thank you for sharing this. I learned something new today.

[@ljm792]

Emily this was such a great video! I'm loving reading the comments as people ask each other more and talk about Phylogenetics, it's so cool! But I have one small issue. At 2:09 you show a diagram Where Amniota diverges into Reptilia and Mammalia, shouldn't that show a divergence into Reptilia and Synapsids? You show the detailed Synapsid branch at 2:27, I think it might be easier for a viewer to understand the connections visually if there had been consistency between those two diagrams. Does that make sense? Anyway, just a little opinion. Thanks for the great video, I'll keep my eye out for notadinosaur's!

[@XCerykX]

I think mislabeling it is still better than the whole Brontosaurus mistake though.

[@MrRizeAG]

At least Dimetrodon exists.

[@XCerykX]

Mr. Rize AG Exactly :p

[@krackerkid5]

or the velociraptor misconception

[@YesMagnificent]

or the whole pterosaurus stuff

[@krackerkid5]

Bryan Durand well the brontosaurus never existed. someone had found fossils and thought it was a new species, but it had already been discovered. somehow the false name became more popular than the real name. velociraptors are less than 2ft tall and no where near as smart as the movies show them to be. pterosaurs are more commonly and incorrectly called pterodactyls. pterodactyl is only 1 type of pterosaur. none of the pterosaurs are dinosaurs either.

[@Desmaad]

Pokémon didn't introduce the misconception that evolution is a linear process; that's been around as long as the concept of evolution has existed.

[@ScionStorm1]

Desmaad And Pokemon also introduced the weird concept of ancient-reversion evolution by having certain Pokemon like Yanma actually evolve into a prehistoric form through the learning of Ancient Power.

[@paleoph6168]

@Desmaad Good point, but Pokemon, being a famous franchise, would introduce such misconceptions at a larger scale to the point where the general public would think (without knowing better) that its version of "evolution" is true. "Evolution" is even a standard of the franchise.

[@Punkundead17]

ive been waiting so long for this episode, i love it

[@shruggzdastr8-facedclown]

The dimetrodon skull seen in the comparative graphic at 4:00 reminds me of what the heads of Skeksis (sp?) looked like in the Dark Crystal movie.

[@homefreylf]

This was one of my favorite Brain Scoop videos, you should do more like this!

[@DTZinatbakhsh]

***** I love the new style of the show. The lighting really brings out the violet, blue and rose in Emily's skin; stunning! The background music is brilliant as well. Emily has also grown as a speaker; her comfort in speaking is really becoming the main attraction of these videos. Keep up the good work and thanks for teaching us the Dimetrodon dance.

[@robertdbernstein]

This is the first video science video of yours I've watched (after having just seen "Where My Ladies At?") and I'm looking forward to watching the rest. I especially appreciate the fact that you've captioned your videos. I'm half deaf, and it's great not having to choose between waking up the neighborhood or struggling through terrible autocaptions.

[@Scotticus25]

I learned more interesting things from KZbin than from school.

[@Zyloxia-n1y]

Charles Bertie Not really,teachers teach from a book which they are assigned to teach from.

[@ELFanatic]

Kinda the idea. They are meant for mass appeal. Not all knowledge is fun and exciting, and in those cases, no easy way out, you just gotta learn it to know.

[@SciJoy]

What are some the biggest changes in classifications that have happened with animals from finding out new information? Like when the large objects in the Kuiper were found and Pluto had to be reclassified.

[@modestieispurete]

1. Your hair looks adorable. 2. I love the visibility (creepering?) of Soon Raccoon. 3. We're more closely related to Dimetrodon than he was to T-Rex? CRAZY. Was the Dimetrodon originally labeled a dinosaur just because of the way it's been represented (like in kids toys) or did the misconception start somewhere else? Like, he looks more like a dinosaur or a reptile than he does like us, so he's gotta be...one of them? I mean, obviously it's been debunked, but where did the misconception come from?

[@flaviusclaudius7510]

The original definition of dinosaur was basically any extinct large animal, and to an extent this is still its colloquial meaning, and the source of the misconception. Since then, we've developed a more phylogenetic classification system (that is, one where organisms are classified according to common descent), which began in roughly the 1950's but really took off in the 1990's. That's not to say that the original definition of dinosaur stuck around that late (the idea that all extinct large animals were dinosaurs essentially disappeared from the scientific literature over a century ago), but it's a lot easier to create a trope in society than it is to remove it.

[@lostcarpark]

Biologists would have known by the early 20th century that dinosaurs fitted into two groups, saurischia and ictioschia, and that dimetrodon didn't belong to either. I remember the books (at least the better ones) I grew up with in the 1970s had a page or two with a heading like "before dinosaurs" that would have featured dimetrodon and other "mammal like reptiles".

[@blkgardner]

Animal classification was traditionally based on "evolutionary grade" rather than on purely cladistic grounds, aka on "family trees" of species. Therefore, some groupings contained some, but not, the descendants of a given common ancestor. For example, reptiles include lizards, snakes, turtles, and crocodiles, but excludes birds, even though crocodilians are more closely related to birds than to any other reptile. While the cladistic approach is more scientific, it requires that one know the lineage of a species in order to classify it. Additionally, each time the lineage of a species is updated, its classification is also updated. Although speaking of "mammal-like reptiles" is technically not the best term, it does give the layman an idea about what sort of creature a Gorgonops is.

[@georgeboucher6262]

I always enjoy BrainScoop videos. They're informative, funny and oh-so lighthearted.

[@stormelemental13]

I really enjoy that each new video is something cool, informative, and definitely not what I was expecting.

[@ShadowsHeat]

Are you also doing the Pterodactyl?

[@GideonGleeful95]

Davesothoth Yes there is, it's a genus of Pterosaur.

[@GideonGleeful95]

Davesothoth Good point, but I think that the one species in that genus is commonly known as Pterodactyl. It's kind of like saying there is no such thing as a Rhinoceros because the family is Rhinocerotidae.

[@avelociraptor9181]

+Randygandalf9 Isn't pterodactylodia a suborder?

[@frac]

Another amazing video. I thoroughly enjoyed having you stand there and teach me something(s!) new. My favourites are still the videos where you aren't able to control your enthusiasm while dissecting something... but now I just want more of both.

[@floydriebe4755]

loved this,, especially that last little bit. you are such a goof, Emily! never change!

[@SashaandStorm]

I had that toy once upon a time. Ahh... memories. I used to be obsessed with learning about prehistoric creatures. It always made me cringe when people misidentified them, including misidentification of Dimetrodon. I'd later broaden my understanding of evolutionary relationships through school and the Internet, including your channel. I'll be sure to spread the knowledge in this video to others.

[@luspearsoram1507]

I am a big animal nerd. I already know a lot about dimetrodon. I am impressed by how much accurate information is in this video. It may be a mouthful, but I like to call such creatures non-mammal synapsids. Pokemon evolution is so different from Darwinean evolution that I consider them to have completely different meanings. The real phenomenon that is closest to Pokemon evolution is actually metamorphosis. The Pokemon Caterpie and Pollywag are excellent examples of having metamorphosis in their "evolution". I recently noticed a possible case of convergent evolution. There is a true dinosaur called spinosaurus. It looks a lot like dimetradon, so they probably evolved similar adaptations independently. The most obvious similarity is the sail. They have similar jaws, except that spinosaurus has a longer jaw. I recently learned that spinosaurus was partly aquatic, and it may have crawled on all fours. With the new stance, the resemblance was particularly striking. 0:40 This is the part that completely blown my mind. I was thinking, "What are those monstrosities?!" I guess I am not used to inaccurate depictions. And I thought omitting feathers from trex and velocorapters in Jurassic World was bad. This mistake is forgivable in the old original Jurassic Park movie. Excepts for the overgrown size of the raptors, they did try to be as accurate as they could at the time.

[@atheistpariah]

I loved the explanation of how mammals and reptiles branched away from their common ancestor. Very informative.

[@JosiahJensen42]

But... but... now I need a new answer to "What is my favorite dinosaur?" !!

[@bringbackthe1960sppl]

EDIT** sorry didnt notice this video is from 2014 Dimetrodon had fir tho and looked like a dog kinda so you wouldnt even think it is a dinosaur, it even had a hump NOT a sail and the last spines stuck out of the hump.

[@EdisonsEvilBrother]

At 5:13 the following was said: "We (humans) are more closely related to Dimetrodon than Dimetrodon was related to T.Rex." I am having trouble with understanding "more closely related". I understand that the last common ancestors of Dimetrodon and T.Rex lived longer ago than the last common ancestors of Dimetrodon and humans, but if you look at the time interval between T.Rex, Dimetrodon and the last common ancestors of T.Rex and Dimetrodon, and you look at the time interval between humans, Dimetrodon and the last common ancestors of humans and Dimetrodon, the first time interval is smaller than the second (T.rex--~255My-->xy

[@Punkundead17]

also, i love how you define your use of words such as "primitive" and how primitive doesnt mean lesser or weak in any way. great episode Emily!

[@SeraphimKnight]

Oh god, I had that exact same toy as a kid. How do they still produce it now?

[@srpilha]

Brilliant stuff, I had no idea about all this. The time-scales are so huge, and allow for such diversity that it's mind-boggling. Cheers for the awesome channel, Emily!

[@desertdumitran]

Yay, Emily you are so awesome! I heart thebrainscoop. Sometimes if there hasn't been a new episode for a while I go back and watch the old ones. I just can't get enough of this brain scooping goodness. P.S. Dimetrodon I promise never to call you a dinosaur again.

[@bentoth9555]

When were synapsids finally taken out of the "mammal like reptile" classification? Because I remember a book from when I was a kid (I want to say it was published in the mid 80s, but it belonged to my brother and could be from a little before that) that still called dimetrodons a reptile, although it did make it clear they weren't dinosaurs.

[@photosinensis]

MOAR PALEONTOLOGY! Seriously, ancient life has gotten my academic gears going since I was a kid.

[@jcb3883]

"You know, you have a solid palate inside you mouth that able you to create a negative pressure. Yep, you suck." - this line has to be used someday.

[@daviddraper890]

What you say is similar to what I have learned in my geology classes. So I was wondering why a place like the Smithsonian would categorize them synapsid reptiles and place them in reptilia in their fossils handbook? Or is the book just old as it was published in 2002?

[@MrGeneralissimus]

I just found this channel. Loving it so far!

[@IsaacJackiw]

So, if birds and mammals have four chambered hearts, and reptiles and amphibians have three chambered hearts, how many chambers do we believe (or is there any evidence) dimetrodon (as an early synapsid) and dinosaurs (as early birds) had?

[@omnissiah1119]

My god is it relieving to hear someone correct this common misunderstanding, I love the brain scoop. You go Emily :)

[@nikkifx]

Mammal's secondary palate and suckling with negative pressure was really interesting!

[@GBLynden]

Where do we send the pics?

[@chaksander]

Dimetrodon was totally my favorite "dinosaur" as a kid, so this is sort of like the Pluto thing for me, where it IS better taxonomically, but it feels like a demotion and that makes me kinda sad for Dimetrodon.

[@thebrainscoop]

Think of it as an upgrade! Now you have the freedom to pick a favorite dinosaur, and how many people have a favorite non-mammalian synapsid?! and think about all of the other creatures like Dimetrodon that don't get celebrated enough! can't think of any? well DANG there's your chance to champion obscure but important lifeforms.

[@chaksander]

Yeah. It does let Stegosaurus retake his favorite dinosaur spot after 25 years of playing second fiddle. (Apparently, back protuberances were how I chose favorites. I didn't realize that until just now.)

[@user-roninwolf1981]

I've assumed that Dimetrodon was a dinosaur, because...you know, long tail and it was an ancient creature...up until I turned 10, which was back in 1991. I've read some of my dad's old "The World Encyclopedia" collections (copyright 1969 btw). I've always been fascinated by paleo-life, and I've learned that there wasn't this one prehistoric super-era as most kids of the 80's thought it to be...but 3 different eras (Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic). Reading the articles on these books, I've learned that the Dimetrodon was a product of the Permian, the final period of the Paleozoic...transitioning into the Triassic of the Mesozoic. Even then, it wasn't until watching Walking with Monsters that I learned that Dimetrodon wasn't even alive at the end of the Permian; Therapsids evolved after the Dimetrodon and met their end at the close of the Permian. Prior to watching Walking with Monsters, I balked at the common-place ignorance that places Dimetrodon with Dinosaurs, and this balking has taken a second level as most people were not even aware of Gorgonopsids like Inostrancevia.

[@mig5l]

Great Paleontology video. Do we have any idea when did the Synapsid and Reptile commom ancestor evolved? Or when did the common Dimetrodon and Mammal ancestor lived?

[@quinson93]

Great video! I really like the pace and all the useful diagrams really helped me to think about all this a bit more transparently, as far as ancestral lines and characteristics go. I'm definably taking notes.

[@jacobrussula5672]

The comment about Dimetrodon not getting a role in Jurassic Park is especially funny considering that it is supposed to appear in the newest film in the series, alongside fellow stem mammal, Lystrosaurus.

[@M_11_m41n]

I swear, if they call Lystrosaurus and Dimetrodon "dinosaurs", I will become Thanos and delete the entire Jurassic World series.

[@hardcore_jedx06jp5]

0:13 I seriously Died

[@mrmahsaltvlogs]

I bet most of this Production budget went into buying that Mint JP Dimetrodon

[@JurassicCrossStudios]

Pretty Much

[@heymansupman1595]

It's like 10 bucks on eBay m8

[@MollyBlueDawn]

Now I am imagining a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a cowboy hat getting into a gunfighter standoff with a Dimetrodon and saying "Why you low down terrestrial vertebrate! This Park ain't big enough for the two of us! Git on back to Synapsid Ranch before I fill ya full o' lead!"

[@BamaFanEdge]

At 4:15, wouldn't any two animals be related at some evolutionary level if you went back far enough?

[@john-alanpascoe5848]

In principle, yes.

[@calwow02]

that bat was all like 'here's my business'

[@HeyHeyHarmonicaLuke]

Awesome, I didn't realize the Synapsid tree was outside the reptile one. I thought Anapsids, Synapsids, and Diapsids were all reptiles, and 'reptile' is just a crappy name, failing to be properly monophyletic. Paraphyletic, defined as 'all Amniotes except birds and mammals'. (So I thought Synapsids counted as reptiles all the way up to becoming mammals.) I suppose perhaps I'm right about the old usage of the word 'reptiles' and she's using a cleaned-up version, based on 'Reptilia'. Cleaned-up to be monophyletic. AronRa , thoughts? 2:15 phylogenetic tree --- So, if Synapsids are way over there on the right, quite distantly related from Diapsids and Anapsids, and those three names don't make up 'all amniotes'... is there a fourth _fenestra-based_ family name, for that last branch in Reptilia? Lizards and snakes?

[@FachriAli]

you might want to consider using polarized filter for the camera lenses, to avoid reflection from glasses. considering many people featured in your channel wears glasses.

[@QarthCEO]

Dimetrodon *IS* a dinosaur under the 2nd definition of the noun: *"a person or thing that is outdated or has become obsolete because of failure to adapt to changing circumstances."*

[@thebrainscoop]

For our purposes, we're using "Dinosaur" in reference to the clade "Dinosauria," of which Dimetrodon is not a member.

[@john-alanpascoe5848]

Tyrion Lannister Nope, to become a member of a different clade you have to build a time machine and change the course of evolutionary history.

[@higbeythedemon]

also, if someone makes you a dimetrodon costume will you do that dance in it for a video?

[@americanaviator676]

To get the jaws to work, that one back-turned leg is the key. Just squeeze it. Had that toy as a kid, I loved those JP toys.

[@Biglittlehats]

The elephant skull to the left of her looks so shocked to hear this information.

[@WiseAssGamer]

Well, I was once watching a cartoon show from the 1970s, it was either on Cartoon Network or Boomerang, where there was a caveman battling a Dimetrodon. As you can imagine, it was more cool than accurate.

[@NerdsOfAdventure]

Evolution FTW! And seriously, you should go check out the isnotadinosaur.tumblr.com because it's great

[@TheBigGooG]

Okay, I just gotta ask: What is the background music? And where can I get it? :D It just got stuck in my head...

[@Nexus2Eden]

I already know that I'll be pulling my hair out by the end of Jurassic World. I can already feel my hair falling out.

[@5avan10]

How about the term "protomammal?" I've heard this used as well. On one hand it indicates that they are not quite mammals, and it also makes no reference to them being reptiles, so that is good, but at the same time it also suggests that they exist only as a transition to the eventual mammals, so it could be accused of suggesting that evolution is directional.

[@Valdagast]

I'm shocked, shocked to discover inaccuracies among toy manufacturers!

[@spencerallegra]

Hi Emily! I have a question, how come some birds can fly and some can't? The ones that can't are because their bodies are too heavy right? So then why do they have wings? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I was just wondering :P

[@john-alanpascoe5848]

Semi-educated guess here: Evolving from a bird that can fly to a bird that can't fly requires far fewer genetic changes than evolving from a bird that does have wings to one that doesn't. If wings indeed don't provide an evolutionary advantage to flightless birds you would expect those birds to slowly lose their wings, but it would take many, many generations.

[@jancedricaquino6641]

it is a pre-start reptile right?

[@biofungus]

So what about Edaphosaurus?

[@paleodan]

I had a dimetrodon toy as a young boy--along with the other "dinosaurs"-and my brain had to do gymnastics in college when I found out it was a synapsid. My brain was all...DRRRrrrr

[@bunnylyks]

Super interesting. I also LOVED the play with framing!

[@goliathprime]

Dimetrodon is my favorite synapsid, next to Emily of course.

[@Cassayowary]

Love this channel but for some reasons new episodes are not showing up in my You Tube subscription feed :(

[@seanhenderson5996]

The scientists in Jurassic Park were so clueless about so many other things it doesn't seem to me to be a huge stretch to accept that they thought Dimetrodon was a dinosaur.

[@m4tts1m]

What?! You just crushed my childhood a little bit. First we lose brontosaurus and now this!

[@NonDelusional74611]

4:14 - YES! Pick any living thing, and any other living thing. Heck! Pick any living thing and any long-extinct thing. They share a common ancestor. Every time. All life is cousin to all other life.

[@fangjiunnewe3634]

Never understood what a synapsid was until now. Vaguely remembered something about the pelvis shape?

[@AngellusBlack]

Yes! Please do more of these, I know Hank (Green) did an overview of animals that are not dinosaurs on SciShow, but an in-depth look at some of the other groups that always get labeled as dinosaurs (such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mossasaurs and pterosaurs) can help reach out to so many more people, especially if #notadinosaur becomes a thing.

[@thebrainscoop]

It'll only become a thing if you guys help me with this one; it can be fun! I'm all about having more scientifically accurate toys for future generations. And by future generations I mean my office.

[@dannymartinez3600]

Dimetrodon may not have star role in JP, they did get a decent cameo in latest Jurassic World movie. And I was there for it. As a child they were my favorite non-dinosaur, dinosaur.

[@Anonymaty]

Another fantastic episode, thank you so much :) One comment: the glare on your glasses was very distracting.

[@alexmendenall]

Oh. My. Goodness. You just ripped open a 20 year old mint Jurassic Park toy.... The card was like PERFECT. I can't unsee this....

[@samboy05]

This is what absolutely love about Emily , she has the ability to make dull facts , which are generally not appealing to the masses so interesting with nothing but pure , unadulterated and cohesive content.

[@NickGreyden]

Needed more simplified evolutionary trees for better visual understanding and less distracting artsy charts/tables on the ones that were present. And yes, the glasses glare was likewise distracting for such a thick subject.

[@myleswelnetz6700]

Feel free to talk about it all you want, just as long as you keep that in mind.

[@Danthaman1971]

In addition to your thorough explanation, even if in the the future one of the descendants of mammals would stop lactating, they'd still be mammals. You can never leave the clade you're already in.

[@madman3891]

Science is cruel, first it took away my favourite planet Pluto and now my what used to be favourite dinosaur.

[@ateyo7554]

Synapsids were never considered dinosaurs.

[@singhajs]

Madman0001 science is ever changing....I heard so many theories for black holes that now I question its existence

[@ScionStorm1]

Madman0001 Actually science gave us a new 9th planet, and Pluto hasn't stopped being interesting.

[@brookeconsole5719]

It's not like it doesn't exist. Nobody took it away from anybody.

[@catsadilla324]

Nothing as cruel as ripping open that mint in package Jurassic Park Dimetrodon.... by Kenner

[@Biochemitra]

The start of the video stated that it was looking at toy packages that claimed dimetrodon was a dinosaur, and then didn't include a single instance of such. Appearing in Jurassic Park doesn't count, seeing as how JP also has pterosaurs and mosasaurs. True, dimetrodon *did* predate mosquitoes, but surely there were other blood-drinking parasites that could've been preserved.

[@MiCKi914]

Suckling is revolutionary, eh? "Sucking at something is the first step to being kinda good at something."

[@AirAssault7]

I had this exact same toy... not sure what happened to it.

[@gabrielleb74]

The glare on Emily's glasses was really distracting.

[@TheAAMoy]

And her eyes looked redden, cold or allergy.

[@recsporteducation4594]

Thanks Emily for all your fun content. You're great!

[@OptimusSkiver]

I still have that toy, and you squeeze a hind leg to get the chomping action. He was one of my favorite cousins for a while when I was a little kid. You always just have to wonder, what I would do if I had a giant dorsal fin like he did. Probably be my own biggest fan... This assumption is under the notion that they used that fin to cool themselves down by wiggling it side to side.

[@Goddisz]

I'm crying when you open that rare toys :(

[@robertpendergast2620]

You are an outstanding presenter. Field is really fortunate to have you.

[@bjnslc]

That sail wasn't likely for temperature regulation. I'm prepping a Sphenacodon ferox, like the reconstruction at the Field Museum. Sphenacodons had no big sail, just a low ridge on their backs. The lived at the same time, in the same places, ate the same things, and are nearly identical to Dimetrodon with the exception of the sail. If your close cousin doesn't need a sail to thermoregulate, that's a darn good indication the sail's for something else...ding, ding...display! Dimetrodon gets all the attention because of that silly sail, and it's so sexy it got him wrongly pop-culture lumped in with the dinosaurs.

[@user-roninwolf1981]

I've assumed that Dimetrodon was a dinosaur, because...you know, long tail and it was an ancient creature...up until I turned 10, which was back in 1991. I've read some of my dad's old "The World Encyclopedia" collections (copyright 1969 btw). I've always been fascinated by paleo-life, and I've learned that there wasn't this one prehistoric super-era as most kids of the 80's thought it to be...but 3 different eras (Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic). Reading the articles on these books, I've learned that the Dimetrodon was a product of the Permian, the final period of the Paleozoic...transitioning into the Triassic of the Mesozoic. Even then, it wasn't until watching Walking with Monsters that I learned that Dimetrodon wasn't even alive at the end of the Permian; Therapsids evolved after the Dimetrodon and met their end at the close of the Permian. Prior to watching Walking with Monsters, I balked at the common-place ignorance that places Dimetrodon with Dinosaurs, and this balking has taken a second level as most people were not even aware of Gorgonopsids like Inostrancevia.

[@MrChuckbackus]

Perhaps my favorite Brain Scoop episode yet. Thank you!