Picture of the Week #56



Skeleton of Buettneria at the American Museum of Natural History in New York

From the information plaque:

One of the large temnospondyls that lived in the Triassic of North America was Buettneria. This animal, with its large toothed skull and small limbs, may have been a lurking aquatic predator, similar to modern crocodiles. Buettneria must have been successful, because its fossils and those of its close relatives are found throughout North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. This skeleton is a composite (made up of more than one individual), and is one of the few actual skeletons of Buettneria mounted for display.

AMNH 2994, collected at Herring Ranch, Potter County, Texas; received in exchange from the Panhandle Plains Museum, 1955.

Buettneria Lived about 225 million years ago

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