| Silvanerpeton Temporal range: Early Carboniferous |
|
|---|---|
| Life restoration of Silvanerpeton miripedes | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Subclass: | "Labyrinthodontia" |
| (unranked): | Reptiliomorpha |
| Genus: | †Silvanerpeton Clack, 1994 |
| Type species | |
| †S. miripedes Clack, 1994 |
|
Silvanerpeton is an extinct genus of early reptiliomorph found in the East Kirkton Quarry of West Lothian, Scotland. The find is important, as the quarry represents terrestrial deposits from the 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 repti-like amphibian, close to the origin of amniotes.[1]
In life Silvanerpeton was about 30 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.