''Pholiderpeton'' (from el, φολῐ́δος , 'horny scale' and el, ἑρπετόν , 'creeping thing') is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of

embolomere Embolomeri is an Order (biology), order of Tetrapod, tetrapods or Stem-group, stem-tetrapods, possibly members of Reptiliomorpha. Embolomeres first evolution, evolved in the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian age, Mississippian) Period and were th ...

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 ...

which lived in the Late

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 (

Bashkirian The Bashkirian is in the ICS geologic timescale the lowest stage or oldest age of the Pennsylvanian. The Bashkirian age lasted from to Ma, is preceded by the Serpukhovian and is followed by the Moscovian. The Bashkirian overlaps with the ...

) of England. The genus was first named 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 ...

in 1869 to include the species ''P. scutigerum'', based on the disarticulated front half of a skeleton discovered near

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. Associated fossil wood suggests that this specimen died inside a '' Lepidodendron'' tree trunk. In 1987,

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: ...

suggested that a different embolomere, ''Eogyrinus attheyi'' from Newsham,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, belonged to the same genus as ''Pholiderpeton''. She subsumed the genus ''Eogyrinus'' into ''Pholiderpeton'' and created the new combination ''P. attheyi''. The anatomy of ''"Eogyrinus"'' ''attheyi'' has been described in detail by A.L. Panchen. Some phylogenetic analyses, such as those by

Marcello Ruta Marcello Ruta is an Italian paleontologist. Ruta's research primarily has focused on the anatomy and evolutionary significance of Paleozoic tetrapods Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda () ...

& Michael Coates (2007) and David Marjanović & Michel Laurin (2019), have argued that ''Pholiderpeton scutigerum'' and ''"Eogyrinus" attheyi'' were not closely related to each other. However, neither publication reinstated the genus ''Eogyrinus''. ''Pholiderpeton scutigerum'' measured in length, while specimens of ''P. attheyi'' could measure up to long. The latter species was thus among the largest Carboniferous tetrapods, and perhaps one of the largest of its family, the

Eogyrinidae Eogyrinidae is an extinct family of large, long-bodied tetrapods that lived in the rivers of the Late Carboniferous period. Gallery image:Eogyrinus BW.jpg, ''Eogyrinus''. image:Pteroplax DB.jpg, ''Pteroplax''. image:Diplovertebron BW.jpg, ''Dip ...

References

Basal tetrapods of Europe Embolomeres Carboniferous reptiliomorphs {{paleo-amphibian-stub