Silvanerpeton
| Silvanerpeton Temporal range: Early Carboniferous Brigantian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Life restoration of Silvanerpeton miripedes | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Reptiliomorpha |
| Genus: | †Silvanerpeton Clack, 1994 |
| Type species | |
| †S. miripedes Clack, 1994 | |
Silvanerpeton is an extinct genus of early reptiliomorph found in East Kirkton Quarry of West Lothian, Scotland, in a sequence from the Brigantian substage of the Viséan (Lower Carboniferous).[1] 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.[2]
In life Silvanerpeton was about 40 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.
References
- ↑ "East Kirkton, Bathgate" (PDF). Geological Conservation Review. pp. 1–12. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
- ↑ Ruta, M. and Clack, J.A (2006): A review of Silvanerpeton miripede, a stem amniote from the Lower Carboniferous of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, no 97, pp 31-63 doi:10.1017/S0263593300001395 Abstract