In Depth First misidentified as a lobe finned fish, Pederpes is a very important entry into the fossil record as it represents the first tetrapod to evolve to a primarily terrestrial (land based) lifestyle. It also slots into a barren area of the fossil record referred to as Romer’s gap, an area where the transition … Read more
In Depth In 1939 Friedrich von Huene named a new species of the phytosaur Francosuchus, F. trauthi based upon a small fragment of rostrum. A new study conducted in 2013 by Butler however found this fragment to simply no be diagnostic enough to warrant its inclusion within the Francosuchus genus, and gave it is own … Read more
In Depth Analysis of Obruchevichthys remains has struck up similarities with a tetrapod named Elginerpeton. This has revealed that Obruchevichthys was also a member of the early tetrapods, not a lobe finned fish as first thought. Along with Elginerpeton, Obruchevichthys predated the other tetrapods by an estimated 5-8 million years. Further Reading – Morphology and … Read more
In Depth Analysis of Elginerpeton allowed for identification of Obruchevichthys, and together they represent an earlier group of tetrapods that pre-dated later species by several million years. Further Reading – Elginerpeton pancheni and the earliest tetrapod clade. – Nature 373 (6513): 420–425. – Per E. Ahlberg – 1995.
In Depth The discoverer had a bit of fun with this as Eucritta melanolimnetes translates to ‘creature from the black lagoon’. Unlike its more famous Hollywood name sake who was depicted as a humanoid, Eucritta was a tiny predator that hunted insects. Eucritta superficially seems to be like other primitive amphibians but has also developed … Read more