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 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.
