''Ophiderpeton'' (from el, ὄφῐς , 'snake' and el, ἑρπετόν 'creeper') is an extinct genus of

aistopod Aistopoda (Greek for " avingnot-visible feet") is an order of highly specialised snake-like stegocephalians known from the Carboniferous and Early Permian of Europe and North America, ranging from tiny forms only , to nearly in length. They fi ...

tetrapodomorph The Tetrapodomorpha (also known as Choanata) are a clade of vertebrates consisting of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) and their closest sarcopterygian relatives that are more closely related to living tetrapods than to living lungfish. Advance ...

s from the early

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 ...

to the early

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 ...

. Remains of this genus are widespread and were found in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, United States,

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 ...

, and the

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 ...

(Central

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 ...

). Like other aistopods, ''Ophiderpeton'' was snake-like, without any trace of limbs. Its body was about long, with 230

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. The skull measured , and large, forward-facing

eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

s, suggesting a hunting lifestyle. It probably lived in burrows, feeding on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

s, and

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

s. Many species are classified in the genus, and similar animals, ''

Phlegethontia ''Phlegethontia'' is an extinct genus of aïstopod stegocephalians from the Carboniferous and Permian periods of Europe and North America. It was about long, and possessed a lightly built skull with many openings, unlike some earlier relative ...

'' and ''

Sillerpeton ''Sillerpeton'' is an extinct genus of aïstopod tetrapodomorphs within the family Phlegethontiidae. It contains a single species, ''Sillerpeton permianum'', which is based on braincases and vertebrae from the Early Permian Richards Spur local ...

'', are known. An earlier genus, ''

Lethiscus ''Lethiscus'' is the earliest known representative of the Aistopoda, a group of very specialised snake-like amphibians known from the early Carboniferous ( Mississippian). ''Lethiscus'' is known from only a single specimen from the Holkerian ...

'', is known from the

and Early

References

External links

''Ophiderpeton'' at Palaeos.com.
Aistopods Carboniferous fish of North America Carboniferous fish of Europe Permian fish of North America Permian fish of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1866 Taxa named by Thomas Henry Huxley {{paleo-amphibian-stub