''Keraterpeton'' is an extinct genus of

lepospondyl 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 Per ...

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

, previously included within the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

Keraterpedontidae family, from the

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 ...

period of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

(

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

)Brownrigg, W. B. (1865). Notes on part of the Leinster Coalfield, with a record of some fossils found therein. ''Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science'' 6, 195–196.Google Scholar and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

); it is the oldest known member of the family

Diplocaulidae The Diplocaulidae ("double cauls") is an extinct family of lepospondyl amphibians that arose during the Late Carboniferous and died out in the Late Permian. They are distinguished from other amphibians, extinct and extant, by the presence of str ...

. The type species is ''Keraterpeton galvani'', named in 1866 as ''Ceraterpeton'' by

Robert Etheridge Robert Etheridge FRS FRSE FGS (3 December 1819 – 18 December 1903) was an English geologist and palaeontologist. Biography Etheridge was born at Ross-on-Wye, in Herefordshire, the son of Thomas Etheridge and his wife Hannah Pardoe. After an ...

and later amended to ''Keraterpeton'' in 1868 by

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The storie ...

and

Edward Percival Wright Edward Percival (Perceval) Wright (27 December 1834, Donnybrook – 2 March 1910) FRGSI was an Irish ophthalmic surgeon, botanist and zoologist. Family, education and career He was the eldest son of barrister, Edward Wright and Charlotte Wrigh ...

; three years earlier (in November 1865), they were authorised by William Bookey Brownrigg to describe some fossil

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

s in his collection, and among them was NHMING F 14735, the holotype of ''Keraterpeton galvani'', which was discovered in the Jarrow Colliery in

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

. Wyse Jackson, P. N., DeArce, M. & Monaghan, N. T. (2011). A letter from William Bookey Brownrigg to Thomas Henry Huxley, dated 29 November 1865, authorising him to describe his fossil vertebrates from Jarrow Colliery, Co. Kilkenny and giving details of his find. ''Irish Journal of Earth Sciences'' 29, 19–22. Permian amphibians

''Keraterpeton'' was a

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

-like creature about long. Its tail was remarkably long taking up two thirds of the animal's total length, and was laterally flattened, presumably to aid in swimming. Its

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

was round and short, especially when compared to its

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

relative, ''

Diplocaulus ''Diplocaulus'' (meaning "double caul") is an extinct genus of lepospondyl amphibians which lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Late Permian of North America and Africa. ''Diplocaulus'' is by far the largest and best-known of the lepospondy ...

''. Its hind legs had five toes, and were longer than the forelimbs, which had only four toes. ''Keraterpeton'' was flattened side-ways, which would have helped push itself through the murky waters of the coal swamps in which it lived. The five-toed hind legs were longer than the four-toed fore-feet and the short, rounded skull had eyes set far forward. Although ''Keraterpeton'' had a long body, it did not have more

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

e than most other amphibian species (15–26 on average).

References

Diplocaulids Carboniferous amphibians of Europe Carboniferous amphibians of North America Fossil taxa described in 1866 {{Lepospondyli-stub