Permian Beasts

In honor of Halloween, I've decided to post my photos of Permian-aged fossils from the Karoo dressed up as real beasts.  I love these creatures from the Iziko South Africa Museum.




The skin knobs on the cadaver are amazing.  The vegetarian is a really sloppy eater, although I guess the carnivore is worse.  The gore puts any haunted house I've seen to shame.  

Why do the top two beasties have glassy, cat-like eyes, but the vegetarian has cloudy brown eyes?  That difference can't be preserved in the fossils.  The cadaver's eyes are out of sight, but his tongue is hanging out.  He's dead.

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