Silvanerpeton Temporal range:
Early Carboniferous
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Life restoration of Silvanerpeton miripedes | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Reptiliomorpha |
Genus: | †
Silvanerpeton Clack, 1994 |
Type species | |
†Silvanerpeton miripedes Clack, 1994
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Silvanerpeton is an extinct genus of early reptiliomorph found by Stan Wood in the 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 Romer's gap, a period poor in fossils where the higher groups " labyrinthodonts" evolved.
The type species Silvanerpeton miripedes was named by Jennifer A. Clack in 1993/1994. The generic name is derived from Silvanus, the Roman god of woods. The specific name means "wondrous feet" in Latin. The holotype is specimen UMZC T1317, a skeleton with skull and skin impressions. [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 individuals of Silvanerpeton were aquatic and the adults were fully terrestrial.
Based on a remarkably well preserved humerus and other traits, the animal is believed to have been a relatively advanced reptiliomorph, close to the origin of amniotes. [3]