The Scenario

In a small ox-bow lake the large shark Orthacanthus attacks the tetrapod Eryops. Eryops, which is related to frogs and salamanders, was also a common predator, lurking in shallow water for prey. On the right are the enigmatic lepospondyls, consisting of the terrestrial microsaur Pantylus crawling on a log and the boomerang-skulled Diplocaulus swimming below. In the right background is the aquatic anthracosaur Cricotus, a large, crocodile-like predator related to the more terrestrial Diadectes, seen in the far left background.

The Environment

The Early Permian redbeds of what is now Texas and Oklahoma document a series of changing environments that alternated from arid to wet. This scene represents a wet period, during the formation of a broad delta. Ox-bow lakes, cut from the main river system, provided rich habitats for fish and the early tetrapods that preyed on them. Forests of cycads and tree ferns were being replaced by the relatives of pine trees and other gymnosperms.