Koilops

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Koilops
Temporal range: early mid-Tournaisian
Koilops NT.png
Life reconstruction
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Sarcopterygii
Clade: Tetrapodomorpha
Clade: Stegocephali
Genus: Koilops
Clack et al., 2016
Type species
Koilops herma
Clack et al., 2016

Koilops is an extinct genus of four-limbed stem-tetrapod from the Mississippian (mid-Tournaisian) of Scotland. It contains a single species, Koilops herma, based on a mold of an 8.0 cm (3.1 in.)-long skull from the Ballagan Formation.

Classification

A phylogenetic analysis in its original description places Koilops as a close relative of Tulerpeton and colosteids. Koilops was described in a 2016 study which was devised to fill in the tetrapod and stem-tetrapod faunas of Romer's gap, an interval of the early Carboniferous with few vertebrate fossils. It was one of five new genera named in this study, along with Aytonerpeton , Diploradus , Ossirarus , and Perittodus . [1]

References

  1. Clack, Jennifer A.; Bennett, Carys E.; Carpenter, David K.; Davies, Sarah J.; Fraser, Nicholas C.; Kearsey, Timothy I.; Marshall, John E. A.; Millward, David; Otoo, Benjamin K. A.; Reeves, Emma J.; Ross, Andrew J. (2016-12-05). "Phylogenetic and environmental context of a Tournaisian tetrapod fauna". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1 (1): 2. doi:10.1038/s41559-016-0002. hdl: 2381/40933 . ISSN   2397-334X. PMID   28812555. S2CID   22421017.