Brachydectes

Summary

Brachydectes is an extinct genus of lysorophian tetrapods that lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian. It had a very small head and long body, B. elongatus had 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) long skull (averagely 1.4 centimetres (0.55 in)) and pre-sacral length up to 150 centimetres (59 in) (averagely 45 centimetres (18 in)),[1][2] while B. newberryi, which have proportionally larger skull than B. elongatus, for specimen with 7.6 millimetres (0.30 in) skull roof had estimated total length of 11 centimetres (4.3 in), while the largest skull exceeds 3 centimetres (1.2 in).[3][2]

Brachydectes
Temporal range: Carboniferous
Reconstructed skull of B. newberryi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Microsauria
Clade: Recumbirostra
Family: Molgophidae
Genus: Brachydectes
Cope, 1868

References edit

  1. ^ Laurin, Michel (2004-08-01). "The Evolution of Body Size, Cope's Rule and the Origin of Amniotes". Systematic Biology. 53 (4): 594–622. doi:10.1080/10635150490445706. ISSN 1076-836X.
  2. ^ a b Wellstead, Carl F. (1991). "Taxonomic revision of the Lysorophia, Permo-Carboniferous lepospondyl amphibians. Bulletin of the AMNH ; no. 209". hdl:2246/904. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Pardo, Jason D.; Anderson, Jason S. (2016-08-26). "Cranial Morphology of the Carboniferous-Permian Tetrapod Brachydectes newberryi (Lepospondyli, Lysorophia): New Data from µCT". PLOS ONE. 11 (8): e0161823. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161823. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5001628. PMID 27563722.
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