Paleothyris

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Paleothyris
Temporal range: Moscovian
Paleothyris Deep Time.jpg
Paleothyris acadiana fossil
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Genus: Paleothyris
Carroll, 1969
Species:
P. acadiana
Binomial name
Paleothyris acadiana
Carroll, 1969

Paleothyris was a small, agile, anapsid romeriidan reptile which lived in the Moscovian (Carboniferous) age of the Late Carboniferous in Nova Scotia.

Contents

Description

Life restoration Paleothyris 02.png
Life restoration
Skull reconstruction Paleothyris.svg
Skull reconstruction

Paleothyris had sharp teeth and large eyes, meaning that it was likely a nocturnal hunter. It was about a foot long. It probably fed on insects and other smaller animals found on the floor of its forest home. Paleothyris was an early sauropsid, yet it still had some features that were more primitive, more labyrinthodont-like than reptile-like, especially its skull, which lacked fenestrae, holes found in the skulls of most modern reptiles and mammals. [1]

See also

References

Arjan, Mann, et al. “Carbonodraco Lundi Gen Et Sp. Nov., the Oldest Parareptile, from Linton, Ohio, and New Insights into the Early Radiation of Reptiles.” Royal Society Open Science, 27 Nov. 2019, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.191191.

  1. Carroll, Robert L. (January 1969). "A Middle Pennsylvanian Captorhinomorph, and the Interrelationships of Primitive Reptiles". Journal of Paleontology. 43 (1): 151–170. JSTOR   1302357.