Caerorhachis
Caerorhachis | |
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Life restoration of Caerorhachis bairdi | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Sarcopterygii |
Clade: | Tetrapodomorpha |
Clade: | Stegocephali |
Genus: | †Caerorhachis Holmes and Carroll, 1977 |
Species | |
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Caerorhachis (meaning "suitable spine" in
Classification
Caerorhachis has usually been placed as a
The vertebrae of Caerorhachis are more similar to anthracosaurs, however. As in all early tetrapods, the
Paleobiology
Caerorhachis is thought to have had a primarily terrestrial lifestyle. It lacks the lateral lines across the skull that served as an adaptation for earlier aquatic tetrapods and their ancestors. The large, well developed limbs suggest it was able to move on land better than other early tetrapods like colosteids and baphetids. Robert Holmes and Robert L. Carroll, the first to describe Caerorhachis, interpreted it as "[an] animal spending much of its life in the damp mud on the margins of ponds or streams, feeding on stranded fish, or occasionally venturing into the water to catch aquatic larvae of other amphibians."[2]
References
- PMID 12803423. Archived from the original(PDF) on 22 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ a b c Holmes, R.; Carroll, R. (1977). "A temnospondyl amphibian from the Mississippian of Scotland". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 147: 489–511.
- .
- ISBN 978-0-253-34054-2.
- PMID 14667343.