Silvanerpeton

<i>Silvanerpeton</i>

Silvanerpeton

Extinct genus of amphibians

Silvanerpeton is an extinct genus of early reptiliomorph found by Stan Wood in the East Kirkton Quarry of West Lothian, Scotland, in a sequence from the Brigantian substage of the Viséan (Lower Carboniferous).[1] The find is important, as the quarry represents terrestrial deposits from Romer's gap, a period poor in fossils where the higher groups "labyrinthodonts" evolved.

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Type species ...

The type species Silvanerpeton miripedes was named by Jennifer A. Clack in 1993/1994. The generic name is derived from Silvanus, the Roman god of woods. The specific name means "wondrous feet" in Latin. The holotype is specimen UMZC T1317, a skeleton with skull and skin impressions.[2]

Description

In life Silvanerpeton was about 40 cm (1 ft) long. Some paleontologists think it was semi-aquatic as an adult, others believe only young individuals of Silvanerpeton were aquatic and the adults were fully terrestrial.

Classification

Based on a remarkably well preserved humerus and other traits, the animal is believed to have been a relatively advanced reptiliomorph, close to the origin of amniotes.[3]

References

  1. [1]
    "East Kirkton, Bathgate" (PDF). Geological Conservation Review. pp. 1–12. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 30, 2018.
  2. [2]
    Clack, J.A. 1994. "Silvanerpeton miripedes, a new anthracosauroid from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 84 (for 1993): 369–376
  3. [3]
    Ruta, M. and Clack, J.A (2006): A review of Silvanerpeton miripedes, a stem amniote from the Lower Carboniferous of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, no 97, pp 31-63 doi:10.1017/S0263593300001395 "Abstract".
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Silvanerpeton, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.