Platyhystrix

Platyhystrix (that it means from the membrane flat sort of fabric) is an extinct amphibian, lived in the inferior Permian, around 300-280 million years ago. Its rests have been recovered in the Texas. It deals of an amphibian that quickly suited it for the new warm-damp climate, arrived from the Carboniferous to the Permian.

Well protected

Many reptiles that appeared in the Permian, chased the Platyhystrix. This, in reality, wasn't totally defenseless: its back had covered from a strong caress of bony plates.

A salamander with her "sail"

The aspect of this amphibian, along less than a meter, was strange indeed: the dorsal vertebrae were extraordinarily lengthen, and with all probability they went to hold up, in the animal in life, a spectacular sail accuminate and covered of skin; this structure, had perhaps the functions of thermal regulation bodily, and other animals lived in the same environment, as the two pelicosauris Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus, were endowed with a similar “dorsal sail”, that served to capture the early-morning solar heat, thanks to which heated him and he maintained active; in this way the Platyhystrix, was able to stir in time when its enemies, as the Eryops, were still cold and little assets. The back of the Platyhystrix had covered besides from a thick caress, similar to that of its narrow relative, the Cacops. The skull was big and strong and the body was compact. The legs, court and strong, denote an adaptation to the terrestrial life.

Face of frog

From some of the first amphibians, the ancestors of the frogs and toads the today's were developed. The Platyhystrix, in fact, had face and legs similar to those of a frog.