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''Paleothyris'' was a small, agile, anapsid
* 
'' Westlothiana'', from 335 million years ago, either an early
romeriida
Eureptilia ("true reptiles") is one of the two major subgroups of the clade Sauropsida, the other one being Parareptilia. Eureptilia includes Diapsida (the clade containing all modern reptiles and birds), as well as a number of primitive Perm ...
n reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
which lived in the Middle Pennsylvanian
The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the younger of two subperiods (or upper of two subsystems) of the Carboniferous Period. It lasted from roughly . As with most o ...
epoch in Nova Scotia (approximately 312 to 304 million years ago). ''Paleothyris'' had sharp teeth and large 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, meaning that it was likely a nocturnal hunter. It was about a foot long. It probably fed on insects and other smaller animals found on the floor of its forest home. ''Paleothyris'' was an early sauropsid
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 syna ...
, yet it still had some features that were more primitive, more labyrinthodont
"Labyrinthodontia" (Greek, 'maze-toothed') is an informal grouping of extinct predatory amphibians which were major components of ecosystems in the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras (about 390 to 150 million years ago). Traditionally consid ...
-like than reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
-like, especially its skull, which lacked fenestrae
A fenestra (fenestration; plural fenestrae or fenestrations) is any small opening or pore, commonly used as a term in the biological sciences. It is the Latin word for "window", and is used in various fields to describe a pore in an anatomical st ...
, holes found in the skulls of most modern reptiles and mammals.
See also
* '' Westlothiana'', from 335 million years ago, either an early amniote
Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are disti ...
or a sister group to the amniotes
* '' Casineria'', from 340 million years ago, a basal amniote
Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are disti ...
.
* '' Hylonomus'', from 312 million years ago, another early anapsid reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
* '' Petrolacosaurus'', from 302 million years ago, the first diapsid reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
* '' Archaeothyris'', from 306 million years ago, an early synapsid (proto-mammal)
* Carboniferous tetrapods
Carboniferous tetrapods include amphibians and reptiles that lived during the Carboniferous Period. Though stem-tetrapods originated in the preceding Devonian, it was in the earliest Carboniferous that the first crown tetrapods appeared, with ful ...
References
Arjan, Mann, et al. “Carbonodraco Lundi Gen Et Sp. Nov., the Oldest Parareptile, from Linton, Ohio, and New Insights into the Early Radiation of Reptiles.” Royal Society Open Science, 27 Nov. 2019, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.191191. Carboniferous reptiles of North America Transitional fossils Prehistoric romeriids Prehistoric reptile genera Fossil taxa described in 1969 Paleozoic life of Nova Scotia {{carboniferous-animal-stub