HISTORY OF LIFE

1. The Origin of Life
   
2. Earth's Earliest Life
   
3. Sex and Nuclei: Eukaryotes
   
4. The Evolution of Animals
   
5. Life in a Changing World
   
6. Extinction
   
7. The Early Vertebrates
   
8. Leaving the Water
   
9. Amphibians and Reptiles
   
10. Reptiles and Thermoregulation
    
11. Triassic Takeover
    
12. Dinosaurs
    
13. Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs?
    
14. The Evolution of Flight
    
15. The Origin of Mammals
    
16. Marine Reptiles
    
17. Why Flowers are Beautiful
    
18. The End of the Dinosaurs
    
19. Cenozoic Mammals
    
20. Geography and Evolution
    
21. Primates
    
22. Evolving Toward Humans
    
23. The Ice Age
    
24. Humans and the Ice Age
    

Reptiles and Thermoregulation

The Reptile Radiation

• Yale's Peabody Museum Panorama from the Permian
• Excellent Background Details from the Permian Panorama
• Permian Amniotes: Synapsid Dimetridon and Diapsid Hylonomus
• An Overview of the Fossil Synapsids from the Russian Dinosaur Exposition Website in St. Louis
• Tree of Life Website Guide to the Synapsids
• Skull Characteristics of Synapsids
• Detailed Account of the Skeletal Novelties of Main Synapsid Lineages
• Children's FAQ on Extinct Synapsids (Mammal-like "Reptiles")
• Douglas Henderson's Cool Illustrations of Permian Reptiles

Pelycosaurs

• American Museum of Natural History Specimen of Dimetrodon
• Image of Dimetrodon grandis
• Visual Comparison of Dimetrodon and EdaphosaurusHere or Here
• Virtual "Devonian Garden" with Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus (Requires Special Plug-in)
• Painting of Dimetrodon
• Make a Cut-out Dimetrodon
• An Herbivorous Pelycosaur, the Caseid Ennatosaurus

Thermoregulation in Reptiles

• Reptiles are Hardly Cold-blooded
• Examples of Heterothermy in Animals
• Lecture Notes: Why is thermoregulation important?
• Temperature Regulation

Permian Changes

• Permian/Triassic Mass Extinction
• The Permian and the Permian/Triassic Mass Extinction
• Possible Causes of the Permian/Triassic Mass Extinction
• Implications of Isotope Changes of the Permian/Triassic
• Cool Map of the Late Permian (255 Ma)
• Transition in Climate and Geography Entering the Triassic Period (245-208 Ma)
• Compare the Permian and Triassic Paleogeography of the Southwestern US

Thermoregulation in Therapsids

• Tree of Life Website Guide to the Therapsids (Nothing Here 2/9/00)

Therapsid Evolution

• Cool Map of the Early Triassic (237 Ma)
• Images of Principle Group of Therapsids, the "Beast-Toothed" Theriodonts known as Gorgonopsians: the Large Predator Inostrancevia the Fish-eating Otter-like Annatherapsidus, and the Tiny Insectivorous Silphedosuchus
• News Release for the Discovery of First Complete Fossil Gorgonopsian (250 Ma) or Here
• Images of a Later (Triassic) Group of Theriodonts, the "Dog-toothed" Cynodonts, which is Sister Taxon of Mammals: the Omnivorous Dvinia and the Predatory Cynognathus
• Images of Therapsid Dinocephalians: the Moose-like "Crowned Crocodile" Estemmenosuchus, the Huge Herbivorous Ulemosaurus, and the Saber-Toothed Superpredator Titanophoneus
• Skull Details from Estemmenosuchus
• Images of Herbivorous Therapsid "Two-Fanged" Dicynodonts: Dicynodon and Lystrosaurus
• Douglas Henderson's Illustrations of Lystrosaurus and Other Triassic Reptiles, or Here, Here, or Here
• Ancient Forest Soils Littered with Bones of Lystrosaurus from Early Triassic, South Africa
• Buy Museum-quality Casts of a Synapsids including a Pelycosaur Cotylorhynchus and the Therapsids Inostrancevia and Lystrosaurus; or Check Here