Micromelerpetontidae

Micromelerpetontidae (also spelled Micromelerpetidae) is an extinct family of dissorophoid temnospondyl amphibians that lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian in what is now Europe, with one Carboniferous species also known from North Africa.[2] They were biologically similar to the related branchiosaurids, but proportionally akin to the unrelated microsaurs.

Micromelerpetontidae
Fossil of Micromelerpeton credneri in the Museum of Man and Nature, Munich
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Temnospondyli
Superfamily: †Dissorophoidea
Family: †Micromelerpetontidae
Boy, 1972
Genera

Branchierpeton
Eimerisaurus[1]:43
Limnogyrinus
Micromelerpeton
Nyranerpeton[1]:45

Micromelerpetontids were neotenic and aquatic, similar to their relatives the branchiosaurids. They had lateral line grooves, poorly ossified skulls and limbs, and evidence of external gills. However, they had a higher number of vertebrae (and therefore more elongated bodies) compared to branchiosaurids, as well as thick, bony scales covering the belly and limbs. Some members of the family had skulls which were longer behind the eyes (rather than in front of them), while the opposite was true of branchiosaurids.[3]

References
  1. Schoch, Rainer R.; Milner, Andrew R. (2014). Handbook of Paleoherpetology. Part 3A2. Temnospondyli I. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. pp. 43–45. ISBN 978-3-89937-170-3.
  2. Ralf Werneburg; Joerg W. Schneider; Sebastian Voigt; Abouchouaib Belahmira (2019). "First African record of micromelerpetid amphibians (Temnospondyli, Dissorophoidea)". Journal of African Earth Sciences. 159: Article 103573. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2019.103573.
  3. Schoch, Rainer R.; Witzmann, Florian (September 2018). "Morphology of the Late Carboniferous temnospondyl Limnogyrinus elegans, and the evolutionary history of the Micromelerpetidae". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 289 (3): 293–310. doi:10.1127/njgpa/2018/0762.


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