Greererpeton

Greererpeton
Live reconstruction of Greererpeton burkemorani
Temporal occurrence
Mississippium
approx. 330 million years
Locations
North America
Systematics
Chordates (chordata) Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata) Vertebrates (vertebrata) Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda) Colosteidae Greererpeton
Scientific name
Greererpeton
Romer , 1969
Art
Greererpeton burkemorani

Greererpeton is a genus of the Colosteidae , a group of early terrestrial vertebrates (Tetrapoda), from the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) of North America. The genus was described by Alfred Romer in 1969, the only species being G. burkemorani . Greererpeton was a carnivore and, like most early terrestrial vertebrates, lived aquatic.

features

The body of the animal was greatly elongated, the spine in the trunk consisted of 40 vertebrae , that is about twice as many vertebral elements as usual in labyrhinthodontics . The flat skull reached a length of about 18 cm. The limbs were short and the tail was wide. Compared to the anthracosaurs , the orbits (bony eye sockets) in the skull were further forward, the skull and the lower jaw were flatter and there was no ear opening in the skull. A sideline organ was present; this speaks for an aquatic way of life of the animal. The longest specimen of Greererpeton found was about 1.4 m long.

Systematics

Greererpeton belongs to the Colosteidae family of a group of basal terrestrial vertebrates with a secondary aquatic way of life. Within the Colosteidae, the genera Pholidogaster and Colosteus are represented in addition to Greererpeton .

Cladogram according to Benton (2007):

Land vertebrates  (Tetrapoda)	basal tetrapods       Colosteidae    Pholidogaster      Colosteus      Greererpeton      Outgroups of the Reptiliomorpha, including Lissamphibia      Reptiliomorpha

literature

• Michael J. Benton: Paleontology of the vertebrates. 2007, ISBN 3-89937-072-4 , pp. 99-101

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Robert L. Carroll (2009): The rise of amphibians - 365 million years of evolution . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-9140-X
2. ^ Robert L. Carroll: Paläontologie und Evolution der Vertbeltiere , Thieme, Stuttgart (1993), ISBN 3-13-774401-6