Eryopidae

Eryopidae
Temporal range:
Pennsylvanian- Early Permian,
Cast of a skeleton of Eryops megacephalus, National Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Tetrapoda
Order: †Temnospondyli
Superfamily: †Eryopoidea
Family: †Eryopidae
Cope, 1882
Genera

Eryopidae are an extinct family of medium to large sized amphibious temnospondyls that lived from the latest Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) to the early Permian period and inhabited North America and Europe.[2] They were apex predators in the stream and lake habitats they inhabited. Their life cycle (exemplified by Onchiodon) consist of a small larvae that grows into a heavily ossified adult. This group are unusual in their variability in their morphology and development.[3]

They have interpterygoid vacuities (spaces in the interpterygoid bone) that are rounded at the front and large external nares.

Clamorosaurus and Syndyodosuchus appear to be amongst the last members of Eryopidae.[4]

Not all of the genera previously included in the Eryopidae (Carroll 1988) are retained under the cladistic revisions.

Distribution

They had a broad geographic range inhabiting much of the northern regions of the supercontinent Pangea in what would become North America and the eastern margins of Europe.[4]

In Texas, many fossils of Eryops have been found. There are also a few genera of European Eryopsids distributed through out. Fossils have been found in France (Actinodon), Germany (Onchiodon and Stenokranio), Czech Republic (Onchiodon), Poland (Osteophorus) and in Pechora Basin, Russia (Clamorosaurus).[4]

Taxonomy

Eryopidae is a member of Eryopiformes along with Stereospondylomorpha. Below is a list of genera that belongs to this family and the subfamily Eryopinae:

  • Actinodon
  • ?Chelydosaurus
  • ?Syndyodosuchus (possibly a Actinodontid)
  • Stenokranio[5]

Eryopinae

References

  1. ^ a b c d e R. R. Schoch, A. R. Milner (2014). Handbook of Paleoherpetology. Part 3A2 Temnospondyli I
  2. ^ R. R. Schoch (January 2013). "The evolution of major temnospondyl clades: An inclusive phylogenetic analysis". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 11 (6): 673–705. Bibcode:2013JSPal..11..673S. doi:10.1080/14772019.2012.699006.
  3. ^ Schoch, Rainer R. (2021-09-30). "The life cycle in late Paleozoic eryopid temnospondyls: developmental variation, plasticity and phylogeny". Fossil Record. 24 (2): 295–319. Bibcode:2021FossR..24..295S. doi:10.5194/fr-24-295-2021. ISSN 2193-0066.
  4. ^ a b c Werneburg, Ralf; Witzmann, Florian (2024-12-30). "The last eryopids: Clamorosaurus and Syndyodosuchus from the late Kungurian (Cisuralian, Permian) of Russia revisited". Fossil Record. 27 (3): 353–380. doi:10.3897/fr.27.125460. ISSN 2193-0074.
  5. ^ Werneburg, Ralf; Witzmann, Florian; Rinehart, Larry; Fischer, Jan; Voigt, Sebastian (November 2023). "A new eryopid temnospondyl from the Carboniferous–Permian boundary of Germany". Journal of Paleontology. 97 (6): 1251–1281. Bibcode:2023JPal...97.1251W. doi:10.1017/jpa.2023.58. ISSN 0022-3360.

Further reading

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