Anthracosaurus
| Anthracosaurus Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Life restoration of Anthracosaurus russeli | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Sarcopterygii |
| Clade: | Tetrapodomorpha |
| Order: | †Embolomeri |
| Family: | †Anthracosauridae Cope, 1875 |
| Genus: | †Anthracosaurus Huxley, 1863 |
| Type species | |
| †Anthracosaurus russelli Huxley, 1863
| |
Anthracosaurus is an
Late Carboniferous (around 315 million years ago) in what is now Scotland, England, and Ohio.[1][2][3]
It was a large, aquatic eel-like predator. It has a robust skull about 40 centimetres (1.3 ft) in length with large teeth in the jaws and on the roof of the mouth. Anthracosaurus probably inhabited swamps, rivers and lakes. Its name is Greek for "coal lizard".
Discovery and specimens
Scotland
The genus and
Westphalian B, corresponding to the early-middle part of the Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous). The holotype is a large flattened cranium embedded in an ironstone nodule. Due to the tough mineral encrustation, it would take more than a century for the skull to be fully prepared and cleared of matrix.[1] Subsequent to Huxley's original description, incremental preparation allowed for the skull to be redescribed by Watson (1929)[5] and later Panchen (1977).[1] Other fossils from Airdrie include lower jaw fragments, teeth, vertebrae, and possibly a partial interclavicle.[1] It is uncertain whether the postcranial fossils truly belong to Anthracosaurus. The vertebrae are undiagnostic beyond their embolomerous form, while the interclavicle shows similarity to that of Pholiderpeton.[2]
England
A second, less complete skull from
Ohio
Linton, Ohio, belonged to a species of Anthracosaurus. Now known as Anthracosaurus lancifer, this species is represented by a collection of isolated teeth, vertebrae, and molds of a snout and shoulder girdle. The snout shows enlarged premaxillary teeth, but this trait is present in other American embolomeres like Eobaphetes and Neopteroplax. Another embolomere described from Linton, Leptophractus obsoletus,[1]
probably represents an early growth phase of Anthracosaurus lancifer.
References
- ^ .
- ^ a b c Clack, J.A. (1987). "Two new specimens of Anthracosaurus (Amphibia: Anthracosauria) from the Northumberland Coal Measures" (PDF). Palaeontology. 30 (1): 15–26.
- .
- ISSN 0370-291X.
- ^ Watson, D.M.S. (1929). "The Carboniferous Amphibia of Scotland". Palaeontologia Hungarica. 1: 219–252.
- ISSN 0028-0836.
- ^ Panchen, A.L. (1981). "A jaw ramus of the Coal Measure amphibian Anthracosaurus from Northumberland" (PDF). Palaeontology. 24 (1): 85–92.
- ^ Romer, Alfred S. (1963). "The larger embolomerous amphibians of the American Carboniferous". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. 128: 415–454.