Titre du projet
Feeding ecology of the Early Permian gigantic temnospondyl Eryops
Descriptif du projet
Temnospondyls are a large group of early tetrapods originated during the Carboniferous and tradionally considered as the ancestor group of Lissamphibians. Temnospondyls occupied a very wide number of ecological niches from fully aquatic forms to terrestrial ones with an important diversity of size (from few cms up to 5 meters long). Temnospondyls had an important peak of diversity during the Permian and its fossil record is well known from several genera recovered in most continents. During the Early Permian, the genus Eryops was a large terrestrial temnospondyl (up to 2-3 meter long), being an apex predator of these Permian continental ecosystems and might one of the few competing with the dominant synapsids of the time. However, it is unclear the biomechanical capabilities of these large temnospondyl and for this reason this project pursues to analyze the cranial structure of this taxon. To achieve this goal, a skull stored at the MNHN needs to be digitized and digitally segmented and prepared to perform biomechanical analyses (Finite Element Analysis, FEA) to analyze the performance of the skull under different biomechanical scenarios and to deep on the feeding ecology of this taxon.

Travaux réalisés par la plateforme AST-RX

Collection No Inventaire Descriptif Vignette Equipement
F 1892-1-1 spécimen plat et dense : présence d'artefacts (numérisé en entier) v|tome|x L 240-180