Silvanerpeton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silvanerpeton
Temporal range: Early Carboniferous Brigantian
↓
Silvanerpeton1DB.jpg
Life restoration of Silvanerpeton miripedes
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Reptiliomorpha
Genus: †Silvanerpeton
Clack, 1994
Type species
†Silvanerpeton miripedes
Clack, 1994

Silvanerpeton is an extinct genus of early reptiliomorph found in 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. Based on a remarkably well preserved humerus and other traits, the animal is believed to have been an advanced reptiliomorphs, close to the origin of amniotes.[2]

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

References[]

  1. ^ "East Kirkton, Bathgate" (PDF). Geological Conservation Review. pp. 1–12. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  2. ^ Ruta, M. and Clack, J.A (2006): A review of Silvanerpeton miripede, 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
Retrieved from ""