''Kyrinion'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

baphetid Baphetidae is an extinct family of early tetrapods. Baphetids were large labyrinthodont predators of the Late Carboniferous period ( Namurian through Westphalian) of Europe. Fragmentary remains from the Early Carboniferous of Canada have been te ...

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 theraps ...

from the

Late Carboniferous Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

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 ...

. It is known from a skull that was found in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

county dating back to the Westphalian stage. Along with the skull is part of the lower jaw, an arch of the

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bone (the vertebra that connects to the skull) and a rib possibly belonging to a cervical (neck) vertebra. The type species ''K. martilli'' was named from this material in 2003.

Description

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

skull of ''Kyrinion'' is well preserved with the back of the skull and both stapes, or ear bones, intact. The orbits, or eye sockets, are somewhat triangular in shape. Areas connecting the palate with the jaws and braincase make the skull inflexible. Lateral lines, used for sensory perception in aquatic environments, are present on the quadratojugal bone behind the eyes. The lower jaw lacks the distinctive features of some other baphetids, such as teeth on the parasymphysial plate, a piece of bone that overlies the

dentary symphysis In human anatomy, the facial skeleton of the skull the external surface of the mandible is marked in the median line by a faint ridge, indicating the mandibular symphysis (Latin: ''symphysis menti'') or line of junction where the two lateral halves ...

Classification

''Kyrinion'' is a member of the family Baphetidae, a group of large aquatic tetrapods that somewhat resembled salamanders. Among baphetids, ''Kyrinion'' is most closely related to ''

Loxomma ''Loxomma'' (meaning “slanting eyes”) is an extinct genus of Loxommatinae and one of the first Carboniferous tetrapods. They were first described in 1862 and further described in 1870 when two more craniums were found. It is mostly associat ...

'' and ''

Megalocephalus ''Megalocephalus'' (meaning "big head") is an extinct genus of baphetid animal from the late Carboniferous ( Westphalian A-C) of the British Isles and the United States (Ohio). It contains two species, ''M. pachycephalus'' and ''M. lineolatus'' ...

''. In 2009, all three genera were placed within the newly erected subfamily Loxommatinae.

Discovery

The holotype skull of ''Kyrinion'' was found embedded in a piece of ironstone by paleontologist David Martill in 1993. Martill found the rock on a beach at Whitley Bay and noticed part of an exposed bone. In 2003, after extensive preparation of the holotype, paleontologist

Jennifer A. Clack Jennifer Alice Clack, (''née'' Agnew; 3 November 1947 – 26 March 2020) was an English palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist. She specialised in the early evolution of tetrapods, specifically studying the "fish to tetrapod" transition: ...

described the specimen and named the species after Martill. It is now housed in the

Hancock Museum The Great North Museum: Hancock is a museum of natural history and ancient civilisations in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The museum was established in 1884 and was formerly known as the Hancock Museum. In 2006 it merged with Newcastle Univers ...

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References

Carboniferous tetrapods of Europe Baphetoids {{carboniferous-animal-stub