When Giant Amphibians Reigned

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Temnospondyls were a huge group of amphibians that existed for 210 million years. And calling them ‘diverse’ would be putting it mildly. Yet in the end, two major threats would push them to extinction: the always-changing climate and the amniote egg.

Thanks to Ceri Thomas for the very cool Temnospondyl reconstructions throughout this episode. Check out more of Ceri's paleoart at http://alphynix.tumblr.com and http://nixillustration.com

And thanks as always to Nobumichi Tamura for allowing us to use his wonderful paleoart: http://spinops.blogspot.com/

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

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References:
Gaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods, Second Edition by Jennifer A. Clack.
The Rise of Amphibians: 365 Million Years of Evolution by Robert Carroll.
Amphibian Evolution: The Life of Early Land Vertebrates by Rainer R. Schoch.
Earth Before the Dinosaurs by Sebastian Steyer.
How Vertebrates Left the Water by Michel Laurin.
The Late Triassic World: Earth in a Time of Transition, edited by Lawrence H. Tanner.
The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Explorers and the Wonders of Evolution by Donald R. Prothero.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublis....hing.org/content/281
https://academic.oup.com/zooli....nnean/article/150/4/
https://www.researchgate.net/p....ublication/256496340
“Fishes and Amphibians From the Late Permian Pedra De Fogo Formation of Northern Brazil” by Cox and Barry, 1991.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4524569
“Lower Triassic Temnospondyli of Tasmania” by Cogsgriff, 1974.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.co....m/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.
https://www.researchgate.net/p....ublication/281863720
https://www.tandfonline.com/do....i/abs/10.1080/027246
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.co....m/doi/abs/10.1111/j.