{"id":3756,"date":"2025-02-14T20:14:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T19:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/palaeonavix.bestmarke.de\/portfolio\/mesosaurus\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T00:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T22:14:29","slug":"mesosaurus","status":"publish","type":"avada_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/www.palaeonavix.org\/en\/portfolio\/mesosaurus\/","title":{"rendered":"Proof of plate tectonics: the rake-toothed <em>Mesosaurus<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A strange reptile inhabited large salt lakes in the southern hemisphere during the Permian period. As far as is known, mesosaurs were the earliest aquatic venture since the completion of the transition to land by the true, amniotic land vertebrates. That doesn&#8217;t mean that other early reptiles and pelycosaurs weren&#8217;t good swimmers. But visible adaptations for a return to aquatic life rarely occurred prior to the Triassic. <em>Mesosaurus<\/em> had thickened ribs as a diving weight. The arms were reduced because walking was of little importance. The hind feet were broad paddles. Apart from that, the animal almost resembled a seasnake (with a little bit of an otter, a sawfish, and of the platypus). The peculiar teeth formed a cage to catch masses of small brine shrimps. In view of such specializations, the relationship is difficult to analyse; <em>Mesosaurus<\/em> is usually regarded as an early branch of parareptiles. That the finds from Brazil and South Africa are confusingly similar had already been recognized by Alfred Wegener as evidence of continental drift: Mesosaurs were not oceanic animals, but became extinct long before the South Atlantic opened up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Handmade sculpture of Mesosaurus \u2013 Wegener&#8217;s key witness for continental drift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4333,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pn_jahr":"2014, \u00fcberarbeitet 2023","pn_taxon":"Mesosaurus; Parareptilia","pn_auftraggeber":"Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden; Museum am Sch\u00f6lerberg, Osnabr\u00fcck","pn_ausstellung":"","pn_masse":"","pn_quelle_url":"","pn_lizenz":"\u00a9 Palaeonavix","pn_alt_url":"https:\/\/www.palaeonavix.org\/index.php\/sculpting\/mesosaurus","pn_mitwirkende":"Prototyp gebaut mit Unterst\u00fctzung des Pal\u00e4ok\u00fcnstlers Marcus Burkhardt (viel zu fr\u00fch verstorben)","footnotes":""},"portfolio_category":[166,162],"portfolio_skills":[],"portfolio_tags":[],"class_list":["post-3756","avada_portfolio","type-avada_portfolio","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_category-model-making-casting","portfolio_category-3d-sculpting"],"acf":{"pn_jahr":"2014, \u00fcberarbeitet 2023","pn_taxon":"Mesosaurus; 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