Sometimes mistaken for a dinosaur, Dimetrodon is actually more closely related to mammals. The enormously long spines on the back of this meat-eater probably supported a tail sail that the animal could use to help regulate its body heat. By positioning its sail toward the sun, Dimetrodon may have been able to warm its body, and by turning this sail into the wind, the creature could cool itself down. Dimetrodon lived tens of millions of years before the first dinosaur, in the middle part of the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era. Its fossils have been discovered in Germany and the southwestern United States.For over 25 years, Safari Ltd. has been proud to provide this premier line of scale model, dinosaur collectibles. These award winning dinosaur replicas are authenticated by the paleontologists of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, who houses the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the world. Each Carnegie dinosaur can have up to 25 steps of hand painting to ensure the highest quality in the world marketplace.