Seymouriamorpha
Seymouriamorpha Temporal range: Late Carboniferous - Late Permian
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Fossil of Seymouria in the National Museum of Natural History | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Reptiliomorpha (?) |
Order: | †Seymouriamorpha Watson, 1917 |
Subgroups | |
Seymouriamorpha were a small but widespread group of limbed vertebrates (tetrapods). They have long been considered stem-amniotes (reptiliomorphs), and most paleontologists still accept this point of view, but some analyses suggest that seymouriamorphs are stem-tetrapods (not more closely related to Amniota than to Lissamphibia). Many seymouriamorphs were terrestrial or semi-aquatic. However, aquatic larvae bearing external gills and grooves from the lateral line system have been found, making them unquestionably amphibians. Though as they matured, they became more terrestrial and reptile-like. They ranged from 30 cm (1 ft) long lizard-sized creatures to the 1.5 m (5 ft) long Enosuchus. If seymouriamorphs are reptiliomorphs, they were the distant relatives of amniotes. Seymouriamorphs form into three main groups, Kotlassiidae, Discosauriscidae, and Seymouriidae, a group that includes the best known genus, Seymouria. The last seymouriamorph became extinct by the end of the Permian.
Taxonomy
- Biarmica
- Enosuchus
- Kotlassia
- Leptoropha
- Microphon
- Nyctiboetus
- Utegenia
- Waggoneria
- Family Karpinskiosauridae
- Family Discosauriscidae
- Family Seymouriidae
Cladogram based on Ruta, Jeffery, & Coates (2003):
Seymouriamorpha |
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Cladogram based on Klembara (2009) & Klembara (2010):
Seymouriamorpha |
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