Lysorophia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lysorophians
Fossil range: Carboniferous to Permian

Fossil

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Superclass:	Tetrapoda
Class:	Amphibia
Subclass:	Lepospondyli
Order:	Lysorophia
Family:	Lysorophidae

Genera

?Brachydectes
?Megamolgophis
Cocytinus
Lysorophus
Molgophis

Lysorophia are an order of aquatic Carboniferous and Permian amphibians, which resembled small snakes.

The skull is lightly built and open, with large orbits and fenestrae. The intertemporal, supratemporal, postfrontal, and jugal bomes of the skull have disappeared. The mandibles are short, and the maxilla and premaxilla freely movable.

The torso is very elongate, the limbs diminutive or absent, and the tail short. There are up to 99 pre-sacral (i.e. not including the hips and tail) vertebrae.

Based on morphology of the cranio-vertebral articulation, Lysorophids are usually related to the Microsauria, although the pattern of bones of the skull is very different.

There is a single family, the Lysorophidae. The group is known mainly from the Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian of North America.

[edit] References

Carroll, RL (1988), Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, WH Freeman & Co. p.180
Wellstead, C.F. (1991), Taxonomic revision of the Lysorophia, Permo-Carboniferous lepospondyl amphibians. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 209:1–90
von Zittel, K.A (1932), Textbook of Paleontology, C.R. Eastman (transl. and ed), 2nd edition, vol.2, p.225-6, Macmillan & Co.