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Recumbirostran
Recumbirostra is a clade of tetrapods which lived during the Carboniferous and Permian periods. They are thought to have had a fossorial (burrowing) lifestyle and the group includes both short-bodied and long-bodied snake-like forms. At least one species, the molgophid ''Nagini mazonense,'' lost its forelimbs entirely. It includes the families Pantylidae, Gymnarthridae, Ostodolepidae, Rhynchonkidae and Brachystelechidae, with additional families such as Microbrachidae and Molgophidae being included by some authors. Recumbirostra was erected as a clade in 2007 to include many of the taxa traditionally grouped in " Microsauria", which has since been shown to be a paraphyletic or polyphyletic grouping. Like other "microsaurs", the recumbirostrans have traditionally been considered to be members of the subclass Lepospondyli; however, many phylogenetic analyses conducted since the 2010s have recovered recumbirostrans as basal sauropsid amniotes Amniotes are a clade of te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Batropetes
''Batropetes'' is an extinct genus of Brachystelechidae, brachystelechid recumbirostran "Microsauria, microsaur". ''Batropetes'' lived during the Sakmarian stage of the Early Permian. Fossils attributable to the type species ''B. fritschi'' have been collected from the town of Freital in Saxony, Germany, near the city of Dresden. Additional material has been found from the Saar-Nahe Basin in southwestern Germany and has been assigned to three additional species: ''B. niederkirchensis'', ''B. palatinus'', and ''B. appelensis''. Description ''Batropetes'' is small and short-bodied for a microsaur. Its average total body length was about . The Orbit (anatomy), orbits are large and the skull is short. ''Batropetes'' possesses scales on its underside that are similar to those of reptiles. ''Batropetes'' is distinguished from ''Carrolla'', another brachystelechid microsaur, by the presence of three cusps on the premaxillary and anterior dentary teeth. In ''Carrolla'', there are only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dvellecanus
''Dvellecanus'' is an extinct genus of recumbirostran lepospondyl from the Early Permian of Oklahoma. The only species is ''Dvellecanus carrolli'', which was named in 2015 on the basis of a skull that was originally attributed to the closely related recumbirostran '' Rhynchonkos stovalli'' (it was named alongside another new recumbirostran, '' Aletrimyti gaskillae'', that was also once classified as ''R. stovalli''). ''Dvellecanus'', ''Rhynchonkos'', and ''Aletrimyti'' all come from the Fairmont Shale near the city of Norman in Cleveland County which is within the Anadarko Basin. The name ''Dvellecanus'' is based on an anagram of Cleveland, "dvellecan." ''D. carrolli'' has a skull morphology very similar to ''R. stovalli'' and ''A. gaskillae'': it has a short, pointed snout, large eye sockets, and a sturdy braincase. All of these features are indicative of a fossorial A fossorial () animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground. Some examp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sauropsida
Sauropsida ("lizard faces") is a clade of amniotes, broadly equivalent to the class Reptilia. Sauropsida is the sister taxon to Synapsida, the other clade of amniotes which includes mammals as its only modern representatives. Although early synapsids have historically been referred to as "mammal-like reptiles", all synapsids are more closely related to mammals than to any modern reptile. Sauropsids, on the other hand, include all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. This includes Aves (birds), which are now recognized as a subgroup of archosaurian reptiles despite originally being named as a separate class in Linnaean taxonomy. The base of Sauropsida forks into two main groups of "reptiles": Eureptilia ("true reptiles") and Parareptilia ("next to reptiles"). Eureptilia encompasses all living reptiles (including birds), as well as various extinct groups. Parareptilia is typically considered to be an entirely extinct group, though a few hypotheses for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lepospondyli
Lepospondyli is a diverse taxon of early tetrapods. With the exception of one late-surviving lepospondyl from the Late Permian of Morocco (''Diplocaulus minumus''), lepospondyls lived from the Early Carboniferous ( Mississippian) to the Early Permian and were geographically restricted to what is now Europe and North America. Five major groups of lepospondyls are known: Adelospondyli; Aïstopoda; Lysorophia; Microsauria; and Nectridea. Lepospondyls have a diverse range of body forms and include species with newt-like, eel- or snake-like, and lizard-like forms. Various species were aquatic, semiaquatic, or terrestrial. None were large (the biggest genus, the diplocaulid ''Diplocaulus'', reached a meter in length, but most were much smaller), and they are assumed to have lived in specialized ecological niches not taken by the more numerous temnospondyl amphibians that coexisted with them in the Paleozoic. Lepospondyli was named in 1888 by Karl Alfred von Zittel, who coined the name t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microsauria
Microsauria ("small lizards") is an extinct, possibly polyphyletic order of tetrapods from the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. It is the most diverse and species-rich group of lepospondyls. Recently, Microsauria has been considered paraphyletic, as several other non-microsaur lepospondyl groups such as Lysorophia seem to be nested in it. Microsauria is now commonly used as a collective term for the grade of lepospondyls that were originally classified as members of Microsauria. The microsaurs all had short tails and small legs, but were otherwise quite varied in form. The group included lizard-like animals that were relatively well-adapted to living on dry land, burrowing forms, and others that, like the modern axolotl, retained their gills into adult life, and so presumably never left the water. Distribution Microsaur remains have been found from Europe and North America in Late Carboniferous and Early Permian localities. Most North American microsaurs have bee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joermungandr Bolti
''Joermungandr'' is an extinct genus of recumbirostran tetrapod from the Late Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois. It currently contains a single species, ''Joermungandr bolti.'' Like many other recumbirostrans, the body is elongated, which is likely an adaptation for fossorial A fossorial () animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, and mole salamanders, as well as many beetles, wasps, and bees. Prehistoric eviden ...ity (digging and living underground). References Recumbirostrans Fossil taxa described in 2021 {{Lepospondyli-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odonterpeton
''Odonterpeton'' is an extinct genus of microsaur It is known from a single specimen found in Late Carboniferous coal measures in Ohio. It is now considered to be a member of the "microsaur" clade Recumbirostra, and the sister species of '' Joermungandr'' from Mazon Creek. See also * Prehistoric amphibian * List of prehistoric amphibians This list of prehistoric amphibians is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all genera from the fossil record that have ever been considered to be amphibians, excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted g ... References Microsauria Fossil taxa described in 1909 Prehistoric amphibian genera {{Lepospondyli-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aletrimyti
''Aletrimyti'' is an extinct genus of recumbirostran lepospondyl from the Early Permian of Oklahoma. De type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ... ''Aletrimyti gaskillae'' was named in 2015 by Matt Szostakiwskyj, Jason D. Pardo and Jason S. Anderson. References Cisuralian amphibians of North America Fossil taxa described in 2015 Recumbirostrans Paleontology in Oklahoma {{Lepospondyli-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetrapod
Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (pelycosaurs, extinct therapsids and all extant mammals). Tetrapods evolved from a clade of primitive semiaquatic animals known as the Tetrapodomorpha which, in turn, evolved from ancient lobe-finned fish (sarcopterygians) around 390 million years ago in the Middle Devonian period; their forms were transitional between lobe-finned fishes and true four-limbed tetrapods. Limbed vertebrates (tetrapods in the broad sense of the word) are first known from Middle Devonian trackways, and body fossils became common near the end of the Late Devonian but these were all aquatic. The first crown-tetrapods (last common ancestors of extant tetrapods capable of terrestrial locomotion) appeared by the very early Carboniferous, 350 million years ago. The specific aquatic ancestors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhynchonkidae
''Rhynchonkos'' is an extinct genus of microsaur. It is the only known member of the family Rhynchonkidae. Originally known as ''Goniorhynchus'', it was renamed in 1981 because the name had already been given to another genus; the family, likewise, was originally named Goniorhynchidae but renamed in 1988. The type and only known species is ''R. stovalli'', found from the Early Permian Fairmont Shale in Cleveland County, Oklahoma. ''Rhynchonkos'' shares many similarities with ''Eocaecilia'', an early caecilian from the Early Jurassic of Arizona. Similarities between ''Rhynchonkos'' and ''Eocaecilia'' have been taken as evidence that caecilians are descendants of microsaurs. However, such a relationship is no longer widely accepted. Description ''Rhynchonkos'' has an elongated body with at least 37 presacral vertebrae. Most vertebrae have ribs. Unlike other microsaurs, the atlas of ''Rhynchonkos'' lacks ribs. Both ''Rhynchonkos'' and ''Euryodus'' have atlases that bear a strong r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of convergent evolution. The arrangement of the members of a polyphyletic group is called a polyphyly .. ource for pronunciation./ref> It is contrasted with monophyly and paraphyly. For example, the biological characteristic of warm-bloodedness evolved separately in the ancestors of mammals and the ancestors of birds; "warm-blooded animals" is therefore a polyphyletic grouping. Other examples of polyphyletic groups are algae, C4 photosynthetic plants, and edentates. Many taxonomists aim to avoid homoplasies in grouping taxa together, with a goal to identify and eliminate groups that are found to be polyphyletic. This is often the stimulus for major revisions of the classification schemes. Researchers concerned more with ecology than with systema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic group (a clade) includes a common ancestor and ''all'' of its descendants. The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of Synapomorphy and apomorphy, synapomorphies and symplesiomorphy, symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term was coined by Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia (reptiles) which, as commonly named and traditionally defined, is paraphyletic with respect to mammals and birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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