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Description
This was a private commission. I don't usually have the time to accept commissions, but made an exception for a friend.

Trimerorhachis insignis is a medium-sized temnospondyl 'amphibian' from the famous Texas Red Beds fossil strata dating from the early Permian, some 290 million years ago. These animals were vaguely salamander-like in body shape, but had a odd combination of fish-like, amphibian-like and even some reptile-like characteristics. In the case of Trimerorhachis, it had a covering of fish-like oval scales and possibly internal gills, lost in its terrestrial ancestors and independently re-evolved. As the animal is not closely related to anything living today, I freely borrowed from animals with a similar ecology, such as matamata turtles, when reconstructing its appearance.

The habitat of this animal was small ponds near the sea in an equatorial warm and moist but seasonally dry climate. I looked at underwater photos from the Amazon to see what the combination of murky water, leaf litter and sunshine looks like. The plants are taxa known from the same fossil formation: early cousins of cycads and conifers, and now-extinct 'seed ferns'.

Description
This was a private commission. I don't usually have the time to accept commissions, but made an exception for a friend.

Trimerorhachis insignis is a medium-sized temnospondyl 'amphibian' from the famous Texas Red Beds fossil strata dating from the early Permian, some 290 million years ago. These animals were vaguely salamander-like in body shape, but had a odd combination of fish-like, amphibian-like and even some reptile-like characteristics. In the case of Trimerorhachis, it had a covering of fish-like oval scales and possibly internal gills, lost in its terrestrial ancestors and independently re-evolved. As the animal is not closely related to anything living today, I freely borrowed from animals with a similar ecology, such as matamata turtles, when reconstructing its appearance.

The habitat of this animal was small ponds near the sea in an equatorial warm and moist but seasonally dry climate. I looked at underwater photos from the Amazon to see what the combination of murky water, leaf litter and sunshine looks like. The plants are taxa known from the same fossil formation: early cousins of cycads and conifers, and now-extinct 'seed ferns'.