Dissorophidae is an extinct family of medium-sized, temnospondyl amphibians that flourished during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. The clade is known almost exclusively from North America.
Temnospondyli is a diverse order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic periods. A few species continued into the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Fossils have been found on every continent. 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 considered amphibians, many had characteristics, such as scales and armour-like bony plates, that distinguish them from modern amphibians (lissamphibians).
Eudibamus is an extinct genus of biped bolosaurid ankyramorph parareptile known from the Free State of Thuringia of central Germany. It had a very small size reaching only 25-26 cm in length.
Trematopidae is a family of dissorophoid temnospondyl spanning the late Carboniferous to the early Permian. Together with Dissorophidae, the family forms Olsoniformes, a clade comprising the medium-large terrestrial dissorophoids. Trematopids are known from numerous localities in North America, primarily in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, and from the Bromacker quarry in Germany.
Anconastes is an extinct genus of dissorophoid temnospondyl within the family Trematopidae. It is known from two specimens from the Late Carboniferous Cutler Formation of north-central New Mexico in the southwestern United States. The genus name derives from two Greek roots, ankos and nastes ("inhabitant"), which refers to the type locality of El Cobre Canyon where the specimens were found. The specific name is derived from the Latin word vesperus ("western"). The more complete specimen, the holotype, is a partial skull with articulated mandibles and a substantial amount of the postcranial skeleton. The less complete specimen, the paratype, consists only of the right margin of the skull with an articulated mandible.
The Amphibamidae are an extinct family of dissorophoid temnospondyls known from Late Carboniferous-Early Permian strata in the United States.
Pasawioops is an extinct genus of early Permian dissorophoid temnospondyl within the clade Amphibamiformes.
Rubeostratilia is an extinct genus of amphibamiform temnospondyl from the early Permian of Texas. It is known from a single skull. This genus was named by Hélène Bourget and Jason S. Anderson in 2011, and the type species is Rubeostratilia texensis. The genus name comes from the Latin translation of 'redbeds' in reference to the Texas redbeds that produced both the holotype and many other early Permian fossils. The specific name is for the state of Texas. The holotype and only known specimen was collected in 1941 from the Nocona Formation exposures in Clay County by a Works Projects Administration project that was transferred to the Field Museum of Natural History through an interinstitutional exchange with the Texas Memorial Museum.
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.
Olsoniformes is a clade of dissorophoid temnospondyls. It includes 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, and Apateon pedestris. Olsoniforms share various features such as a stout and low ilium and a thin cultriform process.
Thuringothyris is an extinct genus of Early Permian eureptiles known from the Thuringian Forest in central Germany.
Rotaryus is an extinct genus of Early Permian trematopid dissorophoid temnospondyl known from the Free State of Thuringia of central Germany.
The Tambach Formation is an Early Permian-age geologic formation in central Germany. It consists of red to brown-colored sedimentary rocks such as conglomerate, sandstone, and mudstone, and is the oldest portion of the Upper Rotliegend within the Thuringian Forest Basin.
Eucacopinae is an extinct clade of dissorophid temnospondyls. Eucacopines differ from the other main group of dissorophids, the Dissorophinae, in having more lightly built skeletons and more knobby skulls. The subfamily was originally named Cacopinae, but since the name was already established for a group of living microhylid frogs in 1931, the name was changed to Eucacopinae in 2013. Eucacopinae is a stem-based taxon defined as the most inclusive clade containing the species Cacops apsidephorus but not Dissorophus multicinctus, which belongs to Dissorophinae. According to the most recent phylogenetic analyses of Dissorophidae, Eucacopinae includes the basal ("primitive") species Conjunctio multidens and Scapanops neglecta from the southwestern United States and a more derived ("advanced") group including several species of Cacops and the Russian genera Kamacops and Zygosaurus. Derived eucacopines have two rows of bony plates called osteoderms running down their backs, while the more basal eucacopines have only a single row. Dissorophines also have a double row of osteoderms but probably evolved them independently because the most recent common ancestor of the two groups had a single row of osteoderms.
The Micropholidae are an extinct family of dissorophoid euskelian temnospondyls known from Late Carboniferous to Early Triassic strata in the United States and South Africa.
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.
Richards Spur is a Permian fossil locality located at the Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry north of Lawton, Oklahoma. The locality preserves clay and mudstone fissure fills of a karst system eroded out of Ordovician limestone and dolomite, with the infilling dating to the Artinskian stage of the early Permian (Cisuralian), around 289 to 286 million years ago. Fossils of terrestrial animals are abundant and well-preserved, representing one of the most diverse Paleozoic tetrapod communities known. A common historical name for the site is Fort Sill, in reference to the nearby military base. Fossils were first reported at the quarry by workers in 1932, spurring a wave of collecting by local and international geologists. Early taxa of interest included the abundant reptile Captorhinus and microsaurs such as Cardiocephalus and Euryodus. Later notable discoveries include Doleserpeton, the most diverse assortment of parareptiles in the Early Permian, and the rare early diapsid Orovenator.
Nadia Belinda Fröbisch is a German vertebrate paleontologist and developmental biologist who specializes in the evolution and development of amphibians. She is currently a professor at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin in the Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity.
Hillary Catherine Maddin is a Canadian paleontologist and developmental biologist known for her work on development in extinct and extant amphibians. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University.
