Dimetrodon
c. 295-272 million years ago · Event
The sail-backed predator on every dinosaur lunchbox is not a dinosaur at all: Dimetrodon died out nearly fifty million years before the first dinosaur existed, and sits on the mammal side of the amniote split — it is more closely related to you than to T. rex. Its 'two-measure teeth' (the first serrated steak-knife dentition) made it the Permian's top predator.
On these timelines: The Age of Dinosaurs, Master
More from The Age of Dinosaurs
- Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction (66000000 BCE)
- Tyrannosaurus rex (68000000 BCE)
- Mesozoic Era (252000000 BCE)
- Paleozoic Era (541000000 BCE)
- Jurassic Period (201000000 BCE)
- Cretaceous Period (145000000 BCE)
- Triassic Period (252000000 BCE)
- Archaeopteryx and the first birds (150000000 BCE)
Around 295000000 BCE
- Permian Period (299000000 BCE)
- First amniotes (320000000 BCE)
- Therapsids, the proto-mammals (275000000 BCE)
- Carboniferous coal forests (310000000 BCE)