Amphibamidae

Last updated

Amphibamidae
Temporal range: Late CarboniferousEarly Permian, 311.45–289  Ma
Possible descendant taxon Lissamphibia survives to present.
Amphibamus BW.jpg
Amphibamus grandiceps
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Temnospondyli
Clade: Amphibamiformes
Family: Amphibamidae
Moodie, 1909
Subgroups

See text.

Synonyms
  • Doleserpetontidae Bolt, 1969
  • Peliontidae Cope, MS

The Amphibamidae are an ancient family of dissorophoid temnospondyls known from Late Carboniferous-Early Permian strata in the United States. [1]

Contents

Classification

Amphibamidae has traditionally included small-bodied, terrestrial dissorophoids. The name is attributed to Moodie (1909), [2] but it was rarely used because it originally referred only to Amphibamus . Similar monogeneric families were also erected for other small, terrestrial dissorophoids (e.g., Doleserpetontidae), and most of the taxa now recognized as amphibamiforms were placed within the Dissorophidae.

Clack & Milner (1993) revived the Amphibamidae to include Amphibamus, Platyrhinops, Doleserpeton, and Tersomius [3] . Daly (1994) further expanded the composition of the Amphibamidae to include the newly described Eoscopus as well as the Early Triassic form Micropholis. [4] She suggested that the micromelerpetids were also amphibamids, which has not been validated by more recent workers. Subsequent phylogenetic work verified the monophyly of the Amphibamidae, [5] with recent analyses also recovering the branchiosaurids nested within the amphibamids. [6]

Schoch (2018) erected the new clade Amphibamiformes to include the traditional amphibamids and the nested branchiosaurids and subsequently restricted the Amphibamidae to two taxa: Doleserpeton annectens from the Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry near Richards Spur, Oklahoma and Amphibamus grandiceps from Mazon Creek, Illinois. These taxa are united by several features, such as a medially expanded choana.

Phylogeny of amphibamiforms from Schoch (2018)

Xerodromes

Olsoniformes

Amphibamiformes

Eoscopus

Platyrhinops

Micropholidae

Tersomius

Pasawioops

Micropholis

Amphibamidae

Doleserpeton

Amphibamus

Gerobatrachus

Georgenthalia

Lissamphibia

Eocaecilia

Karaurus

Triadobatrachus

Branchiosauridae

Branchiosaurus

Apateon

Leptorophus

Schoenfelderpeton

[1]

Relationship to the Batrachia

The Amphibamidae have typically been recovered close to some or all of the lissamphibian crown. Until the description of Gerobatrachus , Doleserpeton was considered to be the closest extinct relative to the crown group. [7] Below is a modified cladogram from Anderson et al. (2008) showing Batrachia nested in the Amphibamidae, with Gerobatrachus as the sister taxon of Batrachia (anurans and caudates) and Doleserpeton and Amphibamus as successive outgroups: [7]

Amphibamidae 

Tersomius

Micropholis

Eoscopus

Platyrhinops

Amphibamus

Doleserpeton

Gerobatrachus

 Batrachia 

Anura

Triadobatrachus

Caudata

Albanerpetontidae

There is continued debate over the origin of lissamphibians, including whether they are monophyletic or whether batrachians and caecilians are descended from different clades of tetrapods or temnospondyls. [8] If they are monophyletic, there is also a debate about which clade they are nested in, with some hypotheses suggesting a lepospondyl origin, in which case amphibamids would not be closely related to any extant amphibians. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lissamphibia</span> Subclass of amphibians

The Lissamphibia is a group of tetrapods that includes all modern amphibians. Lissamphibians consist of three living groups: the Salientia, the Caudata, and the Gymnophiona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batrachia</span> Clade of amphibians

The Batrachia are a clade of amphibians that includes frogs and salamanders, but not caecilians nor the extinct allocaudates. The name Batrachia was first used by French zoologist Pierre André Latreille in 1800 to refer to frogs, but has more recently been defined in a phylogenetic sense as a node-based taxon that includes the last common ancestor of frogs and salamanders and all of its descendants. The idea that frogs and salamanders are more closely related to each other than either is to caecilians is strongly supported by morphological and molecular evidence; they are, for instance, the only vertebrates able to raise and lower their eyes. However, an alternative hypothesis exists in which salamanders and caecilians are each other's closest relatives as part of a clade called the Procera, with frogs positioned as the sister taxon of this group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dissorophoidea</span> Extinct superfamily of amphibians

Dissorophoidea is a clade of medium-sized, temnospondyl amphibians that appeared during the Moscovian in Euramerica, and continued through to the Late Permian and the Early Triassic of Gondwana. They are distinguished by various details of the skull, and many species seem to have been well adapted for life on land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temnospondyli</span> Ancestors of modern amphibians adapted to life on land

Temnospondyli or temnospondyls is a diverse ancient order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic periods, with fossils being found on every continent. A few species continued into the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods, but all had gone extinct by the Late Cretaceous. During about 210 million years of evolutionary history, they adapted to a wide range of habitats, including freshwater, terrestrial, and even coastal marine environments. Their life history is well understood, with fossils known from the larval stage, metamorphosis and maturity. Most temnospondyls were semiaquatic, although some were almost fully terrestrial, returning to the water only to breed. These temnospondyls were some of the first vertebrates fully adapted to life on land. Although temnospondyls are amphibians, many had characteristics such as scales and armour-like bony plates that distinguish them from the modern soft-bodied lissamphibians.

<i>Gerobatrachus</i> Extinct genus of amphibians

Gerobatrachus is an extinct genus of amphibamid temnospondyl that lived in the Early Permian, approximately 290 million years ago (Ma), in the area that is now Baylor County, Texas. When it was first described in 2008, Gerobatrachus was announced to be the closest relative of Batrachia, the group that includes modern frogs and salamanders. It possesses a mixture of characteristics from both groups, including a large frog-like head and a salamander-like tail. These features have led to it being dubbed a frogamander by the press. Some more recent studies place Gerobatrachus as the closest relative of Lissamphibia, the group that contains all modern amphibians including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians, or place modern amphibians far from Gerobatrachus within a group called Lepospondyli.

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stereospondylomorpha</span> Extinct clade of temnospondyls

Stereospondylomorpha is a clade of temnospondyls. It includes the superfamily Archegosauroidea and the more diverse group Stereospondyli. Stereospondylomorpha was first proposed by Yates and Warren (2000), who found Archegosauroidea and Stereospondyli to be sister taxa in their phylogenetic analysis. A similar clade is Archegosauriformes, named by Schoch and Milner (2000), which includes Stereospondyli and some Permian temnospondyls that are similar in appearance to stereospondyls, including the archegosauroids. However, according to Schoch and Milner's phylogeny, Archegosauroidea is a paraphyletic group of taxa that are successively basal to Stereospondyli, rather than a monophyletic sister taxon.

Doleserpeton is an extinct, monospecific genus of dissorophoidean temnospondyl within the family Amphibamidae that lived during the Upper Permian, 285 million years ago. Doleserpeton is represented by a single species, Doleserpeton annectens, which was first described by John R. Bolt in 1969. Fossil evidence of Doleserpeton was recovered from the Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The genus name Doleserpeton is derived from the initial discovery site in Dolese quarry of Oklahoma and the Greek root "herp-", meaning "low or close to the ground". This transitional fossil displays primitive traits of amphibians that allowed for successful adaptation from aquatic to terrestrial environments. In many phylogenies, lissamphibians appear as the sister group of Doleserpeton.

<i>Platyrhinops</i> Extinct genus of amphibians

Platyrhinops is an extinct genus amphibamid temnospondyl from the Late Carboniferous of Ohio and the Czech Republic. It is known from many partial skeletons from the Linton site in Saline Township, Ohio and at least 6 partial specimens from the Nýřany site from the Nýřany Member of the Kladno Formation in the Czech Republic.

Tersomius is an extinct genus of dissorophoid temnospondyl within the family Micropholidae. It is known from the early Permian of North America.

<i>Micropholis</i> (amphibian) Extinct genus of amphibian from the early Triassic of South Africa

Micropholis is an extinct genus of dissorophoid temnospondyl. Fossils have been found from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of the Karoo Basin in South Africa and are dated to the Induan. Fossils have also been found from the lower Fremouw of Antarctica.Micropholis is the only post-Permian dissorophoid and the only dissorophoid in what is presently the southern hemisphere and what would have been termed Gondwana during the amalgamation of Pangea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salientia</span> Order of amphibians

The Salientia are a total group of amphibians that includes the order Anura, the frogs and toads, and various extinct proto-frogs that are more closely related to the frogs than they are to the Urodela, the salamanders and newts. The oldest fossil "proto-frog" appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their origins may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago.

Pasawioops is an extinct genus of early Permian dissorophoid temnospondyl within the clade Amphibamiformes.

Plemmyradytes is an extinct genus of dissorophoid temnospondyl from the early Permian. It is an amphibamiform from the Eskridge Formation exposures of Nebraska. The type species is Plemmyradytes shintoni. The genus name derives from the Greek plemmyris and dytes ('diver'), while the specific name honors John Shinton, a fossil preparator at the Denver Museum of Natural History where all known specimens of this taxon are reposited following collection in the late 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olsoniformes</span> Taxon of temnospondyl amphibians (fossil)

Olsoniformes is an extinct clade of dissorophoid temnospondyls, including the families Dissorophidae and Trematopidae. Most members of the clade were highly adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle. The clade was named in 2008 and is defined as the least inclusive clade containing Dissorophus multicinctus and Acheloma cumminsi but not Amphibamus grandiceps, Micromelerpeton credneri, or Apateon pedestris. Olsoniforms share various features such as a stout and low ilium and a thin cultriform process. The earliest-branching olsoniform is Palodromeus bairdi, from the Late Carboniferous of Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Branchiosauridae</span> Extinct family of temnospondyls

Branchiosauridae is an extinct family of small amphibamiform temnospondyls with external gills and an overall juvenile appearance. The family has been characterized by hundreds of well-preserved specimens from the Permo-Carboniferous of Middle Europe. Specimens represent well defined ontogenetic stages and thus the taxon has been described to display paedomorphy (perennibranchiate). However, more recent work has revealed branchiosaurid taxa that display metamorphosing trajectories. The name Branchiosauridae refers to the retention of gills.

Chinlestegophis is a diminutive Late Triassic stereospondyl that has been interpreted as a putative stem caecilian, a living group of legless burrowing amphibians. If Chinlestegophis is indeed both an advanced stereospondyl and a relative of caecilians, this means that stereospondyls survived to the present day; historically the group was thought to have gone extinct by the early Cretaceous. Chinlestegophis jenkinsi, the type and only species, is known from two partial skulls discovered in the Chinle Formation in Colorado.

The Micropholidae are an extinct family of dissorophoid temnospondyls known from Late Carboniferous to Early Triassic strata in the United States and South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amphibamiformes</span> Extinct clade of temnospondyls

Amphibamiformes is an unranked clade with Dissorophoidea created by Schoch (2018). It encompasses all of the taxa traditionally considered to be "amphibamids", branchiosaurids, and hypothetically lissamphibians under the traditional temnospondyl hypothesis of lissamphibian origins. These taxa are typically small-bodied dissorophoids and form the sister group to Olsoniformes, which comprises dissorophids and trematopids.

References

  1. 1 2 Schoch, Rainer R. (2018). "The putative lissamphibian stem-group: phylogeny and evolution of the dissorophoid temnospondyls". Journal of Paleontology. 93 (1): 137–156. doi: 10.1017/jpa.2018.67 . ISSN   0022-3360.
  2. Moodie, Roy L. (1909). "A contribution to a monograph of the extinct Amphibia of North America. New forms from the Carboniferous". Journal of Geology. 17 (1): 38–82. Bibcode:1909JG.....17...38M. doi:10.1086/621585.
  3. Clack, Jennifer A.; Milner, Andrew R. (1993). "Platyrhinops from the Upper Carboniferous of Linton and Nyrany and the family Amphibamidae (Amphibia: Temnospondyli)". New Research on Permo-Carboniferous Faunas. 29: 185–191.
  4. Daly, Eleanor (1994). "The Amphibamidae (Amphibia: Temnospondyli), with a description of a new genus from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Kansas". The University of Kansas Miscellaneous Publications. 85: 1–59.
  5. Schoch, Rainer R.; Rubidge, Bruce S. (2005). "The amphibamid Micropholis from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of South Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 25 (3): 502–522. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0502:tamftl]2.0.co;2.
  6. Schoch, Rainer R.; Milner, Andrew R. (2008). "The intrarelationships and evolutionary history of the temnospondyl family branchiosauridae". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4): 409–431. doi:10.1017/s1477201908002460. ISSN   1477-2019. S2CID   86207414.
  7. 1 2 Anderson, J.S.; Reisz, R.R.; Scott, D.; Fröbisch, N.B.; Sumida, S.S. (2008). "A stem batrachian from the Early Permian of Texas and the origin of frogs and salamanders" (PDF). Nature. 453 (7194): 515–518. Bibcode:2008Natur.453..515A. doi:10.1038/nature06865. PMID   18497824. S2CID   205212809. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  8. Pardo, Jason D.; Small, Bryan J.; Huttenlocker, Adam K. (2017). "Stem caecilian from the Triassic of Colorado sheds light on the origins of Lissamphibia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (27): E5389–E5395. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1706752114 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   5502650 . PMID   28630337.
  9. Marjanović, David; Laurin, Michel (2019). "Phylogeny of Paleozoic limbed vertebrates reassessed through revision and expansion of the largest published relevant data matrix". PeerJ. 6 (e5565): e5565. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5565 . PMC   6322490 . PMID   30631641.