The strange appearance of "Edaphosaurus" with its distinctive dorsal sail composed of tall spines studded with bony knobs has made it a popular subject for scientific reconstructions and paleoart in museums and in books. However, confusion over the animal's skull dating back to Cope's ideas about ""Naosaurus"" and over other details led to a long history of scientific and artistic errors that lasted in some cases into the 1940s. The correct scientific name "Edaphosaurus" (rather than ""Naosaurus"") also was not used consistently until the 1940s.