''Infernovenator'' is a genus of

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

lysorophian recumbirostran from the

Mazon Creek The Mazon Creek fossil beds are a conservation ' found near Morris, in Grundy County, Illinois. The fossils are preserved in ironstone concretions, formed approximately in the mid- Pennsylvanian epoch of the Carboniferous period. These concreti ...

lagerstätte in Illinois, U.S. It was described in 2019.

History of study

The holotype, now reposited at the

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

, was previously described by Godfrey (1997) as an aïstopod, ''Phlegethontia longissama''. Redescription of the specimen led to its identification as a new lysorophian taxon. ''Infernovenator'' is represented only by the holotype, a nearly complete skeleton. The genus name is given for the Latin ''infernum'' ("hell") to refer to the fossorial habitats of the taxon and ''venator'' ("hunter"). The species name honors paleontologist Margaret Clair Steen Brough.

Anatomy

''Infernovenator'' is diagnosed by a unique combination of features: (1) 61 presacral vertebrae; (2) a triangular postfrontal that contacts the tabular; (3) a circumorbital series formed by the prefrontal, the postfrontal, the lacrimal, and the maxilla; and (4) an ossified septomaxilla. Features shared with the lysorophian ''Brachydectes'' and not with other recumbirostrans include: (1) postorbital absent and cheek emargination present; (2) bar-like tabular-squamosal complex; and (3) short and robust dentary.

Taxonomy

Below is the strict consensus topology recovered from the maximum parsimony analysis of Mann et al. (2019):

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q85769415 Lysorophians Carboniferous amphibians of North America Fossil taxa described in 2019