Eucritta
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| Eucritta Fossil range: Early Carboniferous |
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| Eucritta melanolimnetes Clack, 1998 |
Eucritta melanolimnetes ('creature from the black lagoon') is an extinct tetrapod from the Carboniferous period. It was about 25 cm (10 in) long. Its name is a homage to the 1954 sci-fi/horror movie Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Eucritta displayed mixed tetrapod characteristics, such as an amphibian-like skull and a reptilian pallet. Its eye sockets were shaped like keyholes, with pointy openings at the front that may have contained a sort of gland. This characteristic is also seen in the Loxommatidae family (Baphetidae), in which Eucritta has been placed. However its exact phylogenetic position is not known with much certainty due to its mixture of primitive and derived tetrapod characters. The possession of characters seen in baphetids, anthracosaurs and temnospondyls suggests that these three groups diverged in the Carboniferous rather than earlier, in the Devonian[1].
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[edit] References
- ^ Clack, J. A., 1998. Nature 394: 66-69
