Carboniferous tetrapods include amphibians and reptiles that lived during the

Carboniferous Period 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 ...

. Though stem-tetrapods originated in the preceding Devonian, it was in the earliest Carboniferous that the first crown

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 t ...

s appeared, with full scaleless skin and five digits. During this time, amphibians (including many extinct groups unrelated to modern forms, referred to as "basal tetrapods") were the predominant tetrapods, and included the

Temnospondyli Temnospondyli (from Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') is a diverse order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carb ...

Lepospondyli 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 Pe ...

, and

Anthracosauria Anthracosauria is an order of extinct reptile-like amphibians (in the broad sense) that flourished during the Carboniferous and early Permian periods, although precisely which species are included depends on one's definition of the taxon. "Anthra ...

. The first amniotes appeared during the middle Carboniferous ( Early Pennsylvanian) from the lattermost group, and included both sauropsids and

synapsid Synapsids + (, 'arch') > () "having a fused arch"; synonymous with ''theropsids'' (Greek, "beast-face") are one of the two major groups of animals that evolved from basal amniotes, the other being the sauropsids, the group that includes reptil ...

s, but it was not until the very end of the Carboniferous, during a rainforest collapse, and afterwards that they began to diversify.

Classification

The following list of families of Carboniferous tetrapods is based mostly on Benton ed. 1993. The classification follow
Benton 2004
Superclass

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 t ...

a * Basal Tetrapods ** Family

Whatcheeriidae Whatcheeriidae is an extinct family of tetrapods which lived in the Mississippian sub-period, a subdivision of the Carboniferous period. It contains the genera ''Pederpes'', '' Whatcheeria'', and possibly ''Ossinodus''. Fossils of a possible w ...

** Family Crassigyrinidae ** Family Baphetidae (Loxommatidae) ** Family

Colosteidae Colosteidae is a family of stegocephalians (tetrapod-like vertebrates) that lived in the Carboniferous period. They possessed a variety of characteristics from different tetrapod or stem-tetrapod groups, which made them historically difficult to ...

** Family Caerorhachidae * Class

Amphibia Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbor ...

** Order

*** Family Dendrerpetontidae *** Family Cochleosauridae *** Family

Trimerorhachidae Trimerorhachidae is a family of dvinosaurian temnospondyls, including Trimerorhachis and Neldasaurus. They are vertebrates and carnivores. Gallery Trimerorhachis insignis life restoration.jpg, '' Trimerorhachis insignis'', of the early Perm ...

*** Family Eugyrinidae *** Family Saurerpetontidae *** Family

Eryopidae Eryopidae were a group of medium to large amphibious temnospondyli, known from North America and Europe. They are defined as all eryopoids with interpterygoid vacuities (spaces in the interpterygoid bone) that are rounded at the front; and lar ...

*** Family

Trematopidae Trematopidae is a family of dissorophoid temnospondyl spanning the late Carboniferous to the early Permian. Together with Dissorophidae, the family forms Olsoniformes, a clade comprising the medium-large terrestrial dissorophoids. Trematopids a ...

*** Family

Dissorophidae Dissorophidae is an extinct family of medium-sized, temnospondyl amphibians that flourished during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. The clade is known almost exclusively from North America. History of study Dissorophidae is a ...

*** Family

Micromelerpetontidae Micromelerpetontidae (also spelled Micromelerpetidae) is an extinct family of dissorophoid temnospondyl amphibians that lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian in what is now Europe, with one Carboniferous species also known from ...

*** Family

Branchiosauridae Branchiosauridae is an extinct family of small amphibamiform temnospondyls with external gills and an overall juvenile appearance. The family has been characterized by hundreds of well-preserved specimens from the Permo-Carboniferous of Middle ...

*** Family

Amphibamidae The Amphibamidae are an extinct family of dissorophoid temnospondyls known from Late Carboniferous-Early Permian strata in the United States. Classification Amphibamidae has traditionally included small-bodied, terrestrial dissorophoids. The ...

** Superorder

*** ''

Incertae Sedis ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertain ...

'' **** Family Acherontiscidae **** Family Adelogyrinidae *** Order

Aïstopoda 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 fir ...

**** Family Ophiderpetontidae **** Family Phlegethontiidae *** Order

Nectridea Nectridea is the name of an extinct order of lepospondyl tetrapods from the Carboniferous and Permian periods, including animals such as '' Diplocaulus''. In appearance, they would have resembled modern newts or aquatic salamanders, although 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 st ...

**** Family

Scincosauridae The Scincosauridae are an extinct family of nectridean 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''), lepospondy ...

**** Family Urocordylidae *** Order

Microsauria Microsauria ("small lizards") is an extinct, possibly polyphyletic order of tetrapods from the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. It is the most diverse and species-rich group of lepospondyls. Recently, Microsauria has been considered ...

**** '' Utaherpeton'' **** Family

Microbrachidae ''Microbrachis'' is an extinct genus of lepospondyl amphibian from the Carboniferous Kladno Formation of the Czech Republic. Description ''Microbrachis'' was an elongated, salamander-like creature, about long, with over 40 vertebrae ins ...

**** Family Hyloplesiontidae **** Family Odonterpetontidae **** Family

Tuditanidae Tuditanidae is an extinct family of tuditanomorph microsaurs. Fossils have been found from Nova Scotia, Ohio, and the Czech Republic and are Late Carboniferous in age. Tuditanids were medium-sized terrestrial microsaurs that resembled lizards. ...

**** Family

Pantylidae Pantylidae is an extinct family of lepospondyl amphibians and often considered a sister-group to the family Tuditanidae. The family contains two genera '' Pantylus'' and '' Stegotretus'', while a third, ''Sparodus ''Sparodus'' is an extinc ...

**** Family

Gymnarthridae Gymnarthridae is an extinct family of tuditanomorph microsaurs. Gymnarthrids are known from Europe and North America and existed from the Late Carboniferous through the Early Permian. Remains have been found from the Czech Republic, Nova Scotia, ...

**** Family Trihecatontidae **** Family Cocytinidae *** Superorder

Reptiliomorpha Reptiliomorpha (meaning reptile-shaped; in PhyloCode known as ''Pan-Amniota'') is a clade containing the amniotes and those tetrapods that share a more recent common ancestor with amniotes than with living amphibians (lissamphibians). It was def ...

**** Order/suborder uncertain (''incerti (sub)ordinis'') ***** Family Solenodonsauridae ***** ''

Westlothiana ''Westlothiana'' ("animal from West Lothian") is a genus of reptile-like tetrapod that lived about 338 million years ago during the latest part of the Visean age of the Carboniferous. Members of the genus bore a superficial resemblance to modern ...

'' **** Order

***** Family

Eoherpeton ''Eoherpeton'' is the only genus of the family Eoherpetontidae in the extinct suborder Embolomeri. It is known from the Visean and Namurian (now Serpukhovian and lower Bashkirian) stages of the Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geol ...

tidae ***** Family Proterogyrinidae ***** Family Anthracosauridae ***** Family Eogyrinidae ***** Family

Archeriidae Archeriidae is a family of embolomeres that lived in the Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (My ...

**** Order Gephyrostegida ***** Family Gephyrostegidae **** Order

Seymouriamorpha Seymouriamorpha were a small but widespread group of limbed vertebrates (tetrapods). They have long been considered reptiliomorphs, and most paleontologists may still accept this point of view, but some analyses suggest that seymouriamorphs are s ...

***** Family Discosauriscidae **** Order

Diadectomorpha Diadectomorpha is a clade of large tetrapods that lived in Euramerica during the Carboniferous and Early Permian periods and in Asia during Late Permian (Wuchiapingian), They have typically been classified as advanced reptiliomorphs (transitiona ...

***** Family Limnoscelididae ***** Family

Diadectidae Diadectidae is an extinct family of early tetrapods that lived in what is now North America and Europe during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian in Asia during the Late Permian. They were the first herbivorous tetrapods, and also the first ...

Series

Amniota 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 dis ...

* Class Sauropsida ** Basal

Eureptilia 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 Permo ...

*** Family

Captorhinidae Captorhinidae (also known as cotylosaurs) is an extinct family of tetrapods, traditionally considered primitive reptiles, known from the late Carboniferous to the Late Permian. They had a cosmopolitan distribution across Pangea. Description ...

*** Family

Protorothyrididae Protorothyrididae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like reptiles belonging to Eureptilia. Their skulls did not have fenestrae, like the more derived diapsids. Protorothyridids lived from the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian periods, ...

** Subclass

Diapsida Diapsids ("two arches") are a clade of sauropsids, distinguished from more primitive eureptiles by the presence of two holes, known as temporal fenestrae, in each side of their skulls. The group first appeared about three hundred million years ag ...

*** Order

Araeoscelidia Araeoscelidia or Araeoscelida is a clade of extinct diapsid reptiles superficially resembling lizards, extending from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian. The group contains the genera ''Araeoscelis'', ''Petrolacosaurus'', the possi ...

**** Family

Petrolacosauridae ''Petrolacosaurus'' ("rock lake lizard") is an extinct genus of diapsid reptile from the late Carboniferous period. It was a small, long reptile, and the earliest known reptile with two temporal fenestrae (holes at the rear part of the skull) ...

* Class Synapsida ** Order

Pelycosaur Pelycosaur ( ) is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term ''mammal-like reptile'' had been used, and pelycosaur was considered an order, but this is ...

ia *** Family

Varanopidae Varanopidae is an extinct family of amniotes that resembled monitor lizards and may have filled a similar niche, hence the name. Typically, they are considered synapsids that evolved from an '' Archaeothyris''-like synapsid in the Late Carbonife ...

*** Family

Ophiacodontidae Ophiacodontidae is an extinct family of early eupelycosaurs from the Carboniferous and Permian. '' Archaeothyris'', and ''Clepsydrops'' were among the earliest ophiacodontids, appearing in the Late Carboniferous. Ophiacodontids are among the mos ...

*** Family

Edaphosauridae Edaphosauridae is a family of mostly large (up to 3 meters or more) Late Carboniferous to Early Permian synapsids. Edaphosaur fossils are so far known only from North America and Europe. Characteristics They were the earliest known herbivorous a ...

*** Family

Sphenacodontidae Sphenacodontidae (Greek: "wedge point tooth family") is an extinct family of small to large, advanced, carnivorous, Late Pennsylvanian to middle Permian pelycosaurs. The most recent one, ''Dimetrodon angelensis'', is from the late Kungurian or ...

References

{{reflist * Benton, M. J. (2004), ''Vertebrate Paleontology'', 3rd ed. Blackwell Science Ltd * ----- (editor), (1993) The fossil record II. London: Chapman and Hall. *

Classification

See also

References