🎨 RestorationRestoration: Gijs van Houten · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Life restorations are artistic reconstructions based on fossil evidence; true coloration and soft-tissue details remain uncertain.
Eryops
Eryops megacephalus (Eryops · エリオプス)
Known only from fossils. The IUCN Red List assesses only species extant since 1500 CE, so fossil taxa are not assigned a category.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 An estimated body length of 1.8 m is similar to the height of an adult human (Comparison).
- 💡 An estimated weight of 160 kg is about the combined weight of two adults (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
Eryops megacephalus (genus Eryops) was a temnospondyl (crocodile-like amphibian) that lived in what is now the United States during the Early Permian, a large-bodied, land-adapted form with heavily ossified bones. Its body length is estimated at about 1.8 m.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its head was shaped like that of a crocodile, and its limb bones were solidly ossified. With reduced dermal bones in the front chest area and relatively large limbs, its body was well suited for life on land.
🔍 3. Fossil Record & Paleoecology
Like modern amphibians, members of the temnospondyl group went through a tadpole stage. Its weight was estimated at about 160 kg in a study that tested 19 calculation methods by comparing it with living animals such as giant salamanders and saltwater crocodiles.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • Fossil taxon — the IUCN Red List assesses only species living or extinct since 1500
- • paleobiodb.org — basicTaxonInfo
- • wikidata.org — Q680153
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Eryops - National Museum of Natural History - IMG 1974.
- • unsw.edu.au — scientists-estimate-the-weight-of-two-giant-extinct-amphibia
- • cambridge.org — 46D1B3CE17FEA308DE599085B806B476
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Dmitry Bogdanov (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Onchiodon frossardi)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.