The late Permian rocks we passed as we neared Lootsberg Pass capture the synapsids at the height of their reign. For more than 60 million years they were Earth's dominant land vertebrates ...

Life on land throughout the Permian Period, which lasted from about 298 million to 252 million years ago, was dominated by synapsids, the evolutionary precursors to mammals or protomammals.

“The dominant Permian animals on land are what I call protomammals, which are known scientifically as synapsids. There's one called Dimetrodon that's particularly well-known, which is a four ...

Rachael is a writer and digital content producer at IFLScience with a Zoology degree from the University of Southampton, UK, and a nose for novelty animal stories. Teeth, claws, enormous ...