Eogyrinus
Name: Eogyrinus
(Dawn Tadpole).
Phonetic: E-o-gy-rin-us.
Named By: D. M. S. Watson - 1926.
Classification: Chordata, Amphibia,
Reptiliomorpha, Anthracosauria, Embolomeri, Eogyrinidae.
Species: E. attheyi (type).
Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore.
Size: Roughly up to about 4.5 meters long.
Known locations: England, Northumberland.
Scotland, Lanarkshire.
Time period: Carboniferous.
Fossil representation: Skull and postcranial
skeletal remains.
For
the Carboniferous period Eogyrinus was a
particularly large predator
that had an almost eel-like body that measured out over four meters in
length. This body, which featured limbs severely reduced in
physical size, was an adaptation to swimming and hunting in
Carboniferous swamps which would have been clogged with dense weeds,
submerged plants and roots. A body with a very small frontal profile
like Eogyrinus had would have had little
difficultly in navigating the
submerged obstacles, meaning that Eogyrinus could
root out hidden
prey no matter where they tried to hide.
In
more modern times, Eogyrinus has been speculated
to be synonymous
with the genus Pholiderpeton.
If this is correct then fossils
attributed to Eogyrinus will have to be renamed and
moved to
Pholiderpeton since Pholiderpeton
was named long before Eogyrinus was.
Further reading
- Croonian lecture.—The evolution and origin of the Amphibia. -
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 214:189-257.
- D. M. S. Watson - 1926.
- The axial skeleton of the labyrinthodont Eogyrinus attheyi. -
Journal of Zoology. 150: 199-222. - A. L. Panchen -
1966.
- The skull and skeleton of Eogyrinus attheyi
Watson (Amphibia:
Labyrinthodontia). - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society of London, B. 263: 279-326. - A. L. Panchen -
1972.
-
Dates, nodes and character conflict: addressing the lissamphibian
origin problem. - Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 5 (1): 69–122.-
M. Ruta & M. I. Coates - 2007.
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