Protorothyrididae is an
extinctfamily of small, lizard-like reptiles belonging to
Eureptilia. Their skulls did not have
fenestrae, like the more derived
diapsids. Protorothyridids lived from the Late Carboniferous to
Early Permian periods, in what is now
North America.[1][2][3][4] Many genera of primitive reptiles were thought to be protorothyridids. Brouffia, Coelostegus, Paleothyris and Hylonomus, for example, were found to be more
basaleureptiles in Muller and Reisz (2006), making the family as historically defined
paraphyletic, though three genera, Protorothyris,
Anthracodromeus, and Cephalerpeton, were recovered as a
monophyletic group.[5]Anthracodromeus, Paleothyris, and Protorothyris were recovered as a monophyletic group in Ford and Benson (2020) (who did not sample Cephalerpeton), who recovered them as more derived than
captorhinids and Hylonomus, but less so than
araeoscelidians.[6]Anthracodromeus is the earliest known reptile to display adaptations to
climbing.[7] The majority of phylogenetic studies recover protorothyridids as
basal members of Eureptilia; however, Simões et al. (2022) recover them as
stem-
amniotes instead.[8]
References
^Llewellyn Ivor Price (1937). "Two new cotylosaurs from the Permian of Texas". Proceedings of the New England Zoölogical Club. 11: 97–102.
^R. L. Moodie (1912). "The Pennsylvanic Amphibia of the Mazon Creek, Illinois, Shales". Kansas University Science Bulletin. 6 (2): 232–259.
^Robert L. Carroll; Donald Baird (1972). "Carboniferous Stem-Reptiles of the Family Romeriidae". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 143 (5): 321–363.