STL Science Center

STL Science Center

10 December 2014

Needing Citations

This image desperately needs a citation. Aside from needing a proper credit, it is a great image and very succinctly sums up a lot of the known anatomy of Thrinaxodon. The author/illustrator even included the secondary palate, though it is not visible, which is arguably the most important feature of the entire skeleton in terms of being nearly mammalian. There are other characteristics that show its nearness to the animals that would eventually become fully accredited, card carrying mammals such as the paired occipital condyles, modified jaws with teeth geared toward chewing and the loss of the pineal foramen. There has been speculation that the thorax and abdomen of this animal were separated by a primitive but effective mammalian diaphragm also, which is nearly as significant as the prediction that these animals or their nearest descendants may have been producing milk from mammary glands, a very mammalian trait.

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