Baphetidae

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Baphetidae
Megalocephalus has caught a coelacanth

Megalocephalus has caught a coelacanth
Temporal occurrence
Late Mississippian to Middle Pennsylvania
Locations
  • Europe (Scotland, Northern England)
  • North America
Systematics
Chordates (chordata)
Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata)
Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
Baphetidae
Scientific name
Baphetidae
Dawson , 1850

The Baphetidae , formerly also called Loxommatidae , are a group of extinct, formerly land vertebrates from the Carboniferous . They are best known for their fossil skulls. Very few fragments of the postcranial skeleton were found. They were the first fossil terrestrial vertebrates ever to be found in strata of the Carboniferous and were described by William Dawson in 1850. Most of the fossils have been found in Scotland and northern England. The animals existed for a period of 35 million years.

features

View of the skull of Megalocephalus with the large orbit

Baphetids were probably crocodile-like, large aquatic predators and probably ate fish. On the flat skull they had the beginnings of lateral line canals . Large orbita (skull window) with a teardrop-shaped enlargement served as a starting surface for strong jaw muscles or were the site of large glands . The upper skull was flat and hardly higher than the lower jaw. The skull was heavy and very ossified. They also showed a tendency towards compaction of the mandibular bones. The lower jaw had double rows of teeth.

Her teeth were short and pointed like needles. The enamel layer of the teeth was folded like a labyrinth (labyrinthodont). The palatine bone was covered with enlarged fangs, round at the base and laterally flattened at the tip, the palate was closed.

In the Baphetidae, the jaw was opened for the first time by a small muscle that lay behind the axis of the jaw joint and ran from the posterior upper skull to the lower jaw. This was later adopted by almost all subsequent terrestrial vertebrates. In fish, the muscles that open the jaw are connected to the shoulder girdle. The adductors that closed the jaw ran in the Baphetidae from the inside of the skull to the outside of the lower jaw.

Genera

literature

Web links

Commons : Baphetidae  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files