#buettneria

[emaadsidiki]

Hall of Vertebrate Origins ∼ AMNH ∼ NYC

Early Vertebrate Fossils | American Museum of Natural History

Trace the journey of animals with backbones from water to land and see ancient sharks, pterosaurs, and more.

[antediluvianechoes]

Buettneria, Jonathan Kuo, 2013

On land, the belly dragged in the mud, limbs slapped the damp earth trying to find traction for heaving the mass from pool to pool, or one patch of sun to the other. But in the water, the world opened, and the muck-smeared underside could be lifted from the loam, the body nearly weightless, and heavy Koskinonodon did not haul its bulk, but played acrobat, lunging and looping, swimming oblique spirals in the z-axis freedom of the pond.