Phlegethontia Temporal range: Late Carboniferous to Early Permian |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Aïstopoda |
Family: | Phlegethontiidae |
Genus: | Phlegethontia Cope, 1871 |
Species | |
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Phlegethontia is an extinct genus of lepospondyl amphibian from the Carboniferous and Permian periods of Europe and North America.
Phlegethontia was an aïstopod, a group of legless, burrowing, snake-like amphibians. It was about 1 metre (3.3 ft) long, and possessed a lightly built skull with many openings, unlike some earlier relatives.[1]
"Dolichosoma" longissima, named by Antonin Fritsch in 1875, has been reassigned to the genus Phlegethontia and is now considered to be P. longissima.[2][3] "Dolichosoma" has been considered to be a nomen nudum because the holotype was inadequately described through a layer of matrix by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1867.[4][5]
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