Eobaphetes
Eobaphetes | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Sarcopterygii |
Clade: | Tetrapodomorpha |
Order: | †Embolomeri |
Genus: | †Eobaphetes Moodie, 1916 |
Type species | |
Erpetosuchus kansensis Moodie, 1911
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Eobaphetes is an
The provenance of Eobaphetes is uncertain. According to a now lost label, its specimens were supposedly found in a coal seam in Washington County, Kansas by fossil collector Gustav Hambach. However, coal deposits are unknown in this county. Plant fossils from Washington County, Kansas are of Early Permian age, which may suggest that Eobaphetes came from an unrecorded Early Permian coal seam. In 1963, A.S. Romer suggested that Hambach actually collected the specimens from Washington County, Arkansas.[2] Early Pennsylvanian coal deposits (the Namurian or Westphalian A Baldwin coal of the Bloyd Formation) have been found in that county. As a result, Eobaphetes may be one of the oldest embolomeres (if from Arkansas) or one of the youngest (if from Kansas). Hambach worked in both Kansas and Arkansas during his career.[1]
Chemical and spore analysis of the specimens' coal matrix finds little similarity to the Baldwin coal. Instead, it appears to be far more similar to the Nodaway coal of the Howard Limestone Formation. Spores indicate that this formation was deposited later in the Pennsylvanian, Westphalian D or Stephanian. The Howard Limestone is found in Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas. This suggests that Eobaphetes did come from Kansas, though not necessarily Washington County.[1]
Eobaphetes has often been compared to