Paleothyris

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Paleothyris
Fossil range: Middle Pennsylvanian (mid Late Carboniferous)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Captorhinida
Suborder: Captorhinomorpha
Family: Protorothyrididae
Genus: Paleothyris
Paleothyris
Type basal reptile
Length 1 ft (30 cm)
Movement quadruped
Age 300 million years ago
Diet carnivore - small insects
Environment forests
Distribution Nova Scotia, Canada

Paleothyris was a small, agile, lizard-like reptile which lived in the Middle Pennsylvanian epoch in Nova Scotia. Paleothyris had sharp teeth and large eyes, meaning that it was a nocturnal hunter. It was about a foot long. It probably fed on insects and other smaller animals found on the floor of its forest home. Paleothyris was an early sauropsid, yet it still had some features that were more primitive, more tetrapod-like than reptile-like, especially its skull, which lacked fenestra, holes found in the skulls of most modern reptiles, as well as other animals.