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Catlike sabre-toothed predators evolved in three distinct lineages of mammals – carnivorans like the sabre-toothed cats, and nimravids ("false" sabre-tooths), the sparassodont family Thylacosmilidae ("marsupial" sabre-tooths), the gorgonopsids and the creodonts also developed long canine teeth, but with no other particular physical ...
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny [ 1 ] (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era , continuing in the early modern period with work by Pierre Belon who noted the similarities of the skeletons ...
The tetrapods, including all large- and medium-sized land animals, have been among the best understood animals since earliest times. By Aristotle's time, the basic division between mammals, birds and egg-laying tetrapods (the "herptiles") was well known, and the inclusion of the legless snakes into this group was likewise recognized. [28]
Pelycosaur (/ ˈ p ɛ l ɪ k ə ˌ s ɔːr / PEL-ih-kə-sor) [1] is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term mammal-like reptile had been used, [2] and pelycosaur was considered an order, but this is now thought to be incorrect and outdated.
Evolutionary theory predicted that since amphibians evolved from fish, an intermediate form should be found in rock dated between 365 and 385 million years ago. Such an intermediate form should have many fish-like characteristics, conserved from 385 million years ago or more, but also have many amphibian characteristics as well.
For instance, descendants of the first reptiles include modern reptiles, mammals and birds; the agnathans have given rise to the jawed vertebrates; the bony fishes have given rise to the land vertebrates; a group of amphibians, the labyrinthodonts, have given rise to the reptiles (traditionally including the mammal-like synapsids), which in ...
The terms reptile and amphibian were largely interchangeable, reptile (from Latin repere, 'to creep') being preferred by the French. [9] J.N. Laurenti was the first to formally use the term Reptilia for an expanded selection of reptiles and amphibians basically similar to that of Linnaeus. [10]
Haeckel believed that to become a mammal, an embryo had to begin as a single-celled organism, then evolve into a fish, then an amphibian, a reptile, and finally a mammal. The theory was widely accepted, then disproved many years later.