Eucritta
Name:
Eucritta.
Phonetic: Yew-crit-tah.
Named By: Jennifer A. Clack - 1998.
Classification: Chordata, Tetrapoda,
Loxommatidae.
Species: E. melanolimnetes (type).
Diet: Insectivore.
Size: Known skulls range between 3 and 9 centimetres
long.
Known locations: Scotland.
Time period: Visean of the Carboniferous.
Fossil representation: Partial skeleton.
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 a palate, a reptilian characteristic. This mix of characteristics makes determining Eucritta’s phylogenetic position awkward.
Further reading
- A new Early Carboniferous tetrapod with a m�lange of crown-group
characters. Nature 394:66-69. - J. A. Clack - 1998.
- Eucritta melanolimnetes from the Early
Carboniferous of Scotland, a
stem tetrapod showing a mosaic of characteristics. - Earth and
Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
92 (1): 75–95. - J. A. Clack - 2001.
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