Hynerpeton
| Hynerpeton | ||||||||||||
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Hynerpeton |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Devonian | ||||||||||||
| 360 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hynerpeton | ||||||||||||
| Daeschler et al., 1994 |
Hynerpeton (Greek: "crawling animal from Hyner" (city in Pennsylvania )) was a primitive, probably carnivorous amphibian that lived in the rivers and estuaries of the late Devonian . It is one of the oldest terrestrial vertebrates (Tetrapoda) found and is around 360 million years old. His remains were found in the Catskill Formation in Pennsylvania.
So far only shoulder bones, two lower jaws, another part of the skull and a few ribs have been found. The shoulder bones were comparatively strong and allowed Hynerpeton greater mobility on land than other primitive amphibians of the Devonian. Features of the chleithrum (part of the shoulder girdle) show that hynerpetone probably no longer had internal gills like those of fish, in contrast to Acanthostega or Ichthyostega . Compared to other primitive amphibians (such as Densignathus ) the jaw of Hynerpeton is less strongly built, which allows fundamental conclusions to be drawn about its food spectrum. The differences could also indicate a niche division between the two animals.
literature
- Daeschler, EB, NH Shubin, KS Thomson and WW Amaral. 1994: A Devonian tetrapod from North America . Science 265: 639-642.
- Daeschler, EB 2000: Early tetrapod jaws from the Late Devonian of Pennsylvania, USA . Journal of Palaeontology 74 (2): 301-308.