Lepospondyli is a diverse taxon of early tetrapods. With the exception of one late-surviving lepospondyl from the Late Permian of Morocco, lepospondyls lived from the Visean stage of the Early Carboniferous to the Early Permian and were geographically restricted to what is now Europe and North America. Five major groups of lepospondyls are known: Adelospondyli; Aïstopoda; Lysorophia; Microsauria; and Nectridea. Lepospondyls have a diverse range of body forms and include species with newt-like, eel- or snake-like, and lizard-like forms. Various species were aquatic, semiaquatic, or terrestrial. None were large, and they are assumed to have lived in specialized ecological niches not taken by the more numerous temnospondyl amphibians that coexisted with them in the Paleozoic. Lepospondyli was named in 1888 by Karl Alfred von Zittel, who coined the name to include some tetrapods from the Paleozoic that shared some specific characteristics in the notochord and teeth. Lepospondyls have sometimes been considered to be either related or ancestral to modern amphibians or to Amniota. It has been suggested that the grouping is polyphyletic, with aïstopods being primitive stem-tetrapods, while recumbirostran microsaurs are primitive reptiles.
Reptiliomorpha is a clade containing the amniotes and those tetrapods that share a more recent common ancestor with amniotes than with living amphibians (lissamphibians). It was defined by Michel Laurin (2001) and Vallin and Laurin (2004) as the largest clade that includes Homo sapiens, but not Ascaphus truei. Laurin and Reisz (2020) defined Pan-Amniota as the largest total clade containing Homo sapiens, but not Pipa pipa, Caecilia tentaculata, and Siren lacertina.
Robert "Bob" Lynn Carroll was an American–Canadian vertebrate paleontologist who specialised in Paleozoic and Mesozoic amphibians and reptiles.
Eocaecilia is an extinct genus of gymnophionan amphibian from the early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona, United States. One species is described, Eocaecilia micropodia.
Asaphestera is an extinct genus of a synapsid described on the basis of fossils from the Carboniferous of the Joggins locality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It was originally described as an undetermined lepospondyl and subsequently classified as a microsaur within the family Tuditanidae. A study published in May 2020 found that specimens referred to Asaphestera represented several unrelated species. Steen (1934)'s original species name Asaphestera platyris was retained for a skull which has been re-evaluated as the earliest known synapsid.
Acherontiscus is an extinct genus of stegocephalians that lived in the Early Carboniferous of Scotland. The type and only species is Acherontiscus caledoniae, named by paleontologist Robert Carroll in 1969. Members of this genus have an unusual combination of features which makes their placement within amphibian-grade tetrapods uncertain. They possess multi-bone vertebrae similar to those of embolomeres, but also a skull similar to lepospondyls. The only known specimen of Acherontiscus possessed an elongated body similar to that of a snake or eel. No limbs were preserved, and evidence for their presence in close relatives of Acherontiscus is dubious at best. Phylogenetic analyses created by Marcello Ruta and other paleontologists in the 2000s indicate that Acherontiscus is part of Adelospondyli, closely related to other snake-like animals such as Adelogyrinus and Dolichopareias. Adelospondyls are traditionally placed within the group Lepospondyli due to their fused vertebrae. Some analyses published since 2007 have argued that adelospondyls such as Acherontiscus may not actually be lepospondyls, instead being close relatives or members of the family Colosteidae. This would indicate that they evolved prior to the split between the tetrapod lineage that leads to reptiles (Reptiliomorpha) and the one that leads to modern amphibians (Batrachomorpha). Members of this genus were probably aquatic animals that were able to swim using snake-like movements.
Carrolla is an extinct genus of brachystelechid 'microsaur' that lived in the Lower Permian in North America. It was named in 1986 by American paleontologists Wann Langston and Everett Olson. The type species, Carrolla craddocki, is the only known species.
Euryodus is an extinct genus of microsaur within the family Gymnarthridae. Euryodus is a Lepospondyl from the clade Microsauria that lived during the Lower Permian. The name comes from Greek, meaning ‘broad-tooth’. It has been found in the southern half of North America, from its original discovery in Texas up to Utah.
Leiocephalikon is an extinct genus of microsaur in the family Gymnarthridae. The type species is Amblyodon problematicum named by John William Dawson in 1882. Its fossil was found in the Joggins Formation which hailed from Carboniferous period. Although sometimes regarded as primitive gymnarthrids, Leiocephalikon classification is still debated as its fossil is scarce.
Odonterpeton is an extinct genus of "microsaur" from the Late Carboniferous of Ohio, containing the lone species Odonterpeton triangulare. It is known from a single partial skeleton preserving the skull, forelimbs, and the front part of the torso. The specimen was found in the abandoned Diamond Coal Mine of Linton, Ohio, a fossiliferous coal deposit dated to the late Moscovian stage, about 310 million years ago.
Rhynchonkos is an extinct genus of rhynchonkid microsaur. Originally known as Goniorhynchus, it was renamed in 1981 because the name had already been given to another genus; the family, likewise, was originally named Goniorhynchidae but renamed in 1988. The type and only known species is R. stovalli, found from the Early Permian Fairmont Shale in Cleveland County, Oklahoma. Rhynchonkos shares many similarities with Eocaecilia, an early caecilian from the Early Jurassic of Arizona. Similarities between Rhynchonkos and Eocaecilia have been taken as evidence that caecilians are descendants of microsaurs. However, such a relationship is no longer widely accepted.
Pariotichus is an extinct genus of gymnarthrid microsaurs from the early Permian of Texas.
Stegotretus is an extinct genus of microsaur referred to the Pantylidae. It is known from the Carboniferous–Permian boundary Cutler Formation exposures of New Mexico.
Tuditanomorpha is a suborder of microsaur tetrapods. Tuditanomorphs lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian and are known from North America and Europe. Tuditanomorphs have a similar pattern of bones in the skull roof. Tuditanomorphs display considerable variability, especially in body size, proportions, dentition, and presacral vertebral count. Currently there are four families of tuditanomorphs, with two being monotypic. Tuditanids first appear in the Lower Pennsylvanian. Goniorhynchidae, Hapsidopareiidae, and Trihecatontidae appear in the Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian.
Gymnarthridae is an extinct family of the group Recumbirostra. Gymnarthrids are known from Europe and North America and existed from the Late Carboniferous through the Early Permian. Remains have been found from the Czech Republic, Nova Scotia, Illinois, Texas, and Oklahoma. Previously they were considered tuditanomorph microsaurs.
Ostodolepidae, also spelled Ostodolepididae, is an extinct family of Early Permian tetrapods. Initially they were considered microsaurs, but later were assigned to the group Recumbirostra. Ostodolepids were relatively large, reaching lengths of up to 2 feet (61 cm), terrestrial, and presumably fossorial. Ostodolepid remains have been found from Early Permian beds in Texas, Oklahoma, and Germany.
Recumbirostra is a clade of tetrapods which lived during the Carboniferous and Permian periods. They are thought to have had a fossorial (burrowing) lifestyle and the group includes both short-bodied and long-bodied snake-like forms. At least one species, the long-bodied molgophid Nagini mazonense, lost its forelimbs entirely. Recumbirostra includes the families Pantylidae, Gymnarthridae, Ostodolepidae, Rhynchonkidae and Brachystelechidae, with additional families such as Microbrachidae and Molgophidae being included by some authors. Brachystelechidae and Molgophidae have also been grouped together in the suggested clade Chthonosauria.
Huskerpeton is an extinct genus of recumbirostran from the Early Permian period. They belong to the order Microsauria, which was established in 1863 by Dawson, and was quickly expanded to include many different small taxa. They lived in what is now Nebraska and Kansas. The holotype of Huskerpeton was uncovered at the Eskridge formation in Nebraska, which is part of how it got its name.
Andersonerpeton is an extinct genus of aïstopod from the Bashkirian of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known from a single jaw, which shares an unusual combination of features from both other aistopods and from stem-tetrapod tetrapodomorph fish. As a result, Andersonerpeton is significant for supporting a new classification scheme which states that aistopods evolved much earlier than previously expected. The genus contains a single species, A. longidentatum, which was previously believed to have been a species of the microsaur Hylerpeton.
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.
