Anthracosaurus
Temporal range:
Life restoration of Anthracosaurus russeli
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Embolomeri
Family: †Anthracosauridae
Cope, 1875
Genus: †Anthracosaurus
Huxley, 1863
Type species
†Anthracosaurus russelli
Huxley, 1863

Anthracosaurus is an extinct genus of embolomere, a possible distant relative of reptiles that lived during the Late Carboniferous (around 315 million years ago) in what is now Scotland and England.[1][2] It was a large, aquatic eel-like predator. It has a robust skull about 40 centimetres (1.3 ft) in length with large teeth in the jaws and on the roof of the mouth. Anthracosaurus probably inhabited swamps, rivers and lakes. Its name is Greek for "coal lizard".

Discovery and specimens

Scotland

The genus and type species Anthracosaurus russelli were named by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1863, based on fossils acquired by mining surveyor James Russell in 1861.[3] Nearly all fossils were found near Airdrie, in the historic County Lanarkshire of Scotland. Geologically speaking, they hail from the Blackband Ironstone of the Scottish Middle Coal Measures. In traditional European stratigraphy, this layer would be dated to the Westphalian B, corresponding to the early-middle part of the Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous). The holotype is a large flattened cranium embedded in an ironstone nodule. Due to the tough mineral encrustation, it would take more than a century for the skull to be fully prepared and cleared of matrix.[1] Subsequent to Huxley's original description, incremental preparation allowed for the skull to be redescribed by Watson (1929)[4] and later Panchen (1977).[1] Other fossils from Airdrie include lower jaw fragments, teeth, vertebrae, and possibly a partial interclavicle.[1] It is uncertain whether the postcranial fossils truly belong to Anthracosaurus. The vertebrae are undiagnostic beyond their embolomerous form, while the interclavicle shows similarity to that of Pholiderpeton.[2]

England

A second, less complete skull from Washington (in the historic County Durham of England) was assigned to Anthracosaurus russelli by Panchen et al. (1967). It is slightly older than the Scottish fossils, dating to the Lower Coal Measures (Westphalian A).[5][1] Panchen (1981) expanded the list of English fossils with an incomplete jaw stored in the Hancock Museum, possibly from the Lower Main Seam of Newsham, Northumberland (Westphalian B).[6] Clack (1987) described two additional Anthracosaurus fossils from Newsham: a partial skull roof (previously referred to Pteroplax cornuta or Eogyrinus attheyi) and an isolated jugal bone.[2]

Ohio

Romer (1963)[7] attempted to name a second species of Anthracosaurus from the Diamond Coal Mine, a productive Carboniferous site in Linton, Ohio. This American species, Anthracosaurus lancifer, consists of a collection of isolated teeth, vertebrae, and molds of a snout and shoulder girdle. The species name 'lancifer' was borrowed from a large tooth ("Rhizodus lancifer"), an undiagnostic fossil which could belong to a variety of predatory fish or amphibians. The snout does show enlarged premaxillary teeth, but this trait is present in other American embolomeres like Eobaphetes and Neopteroplax. It is probable that "Anthracosaurus lancifer" simply represents adult specimens of another Linton embolomere, Leptophractus obsoletus.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Panchen, A.L. (1977). "On Anthracosaurus russelli Huxley (Amphibia: Labyrinthodontia) and the family Anthracosauridae". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 279 (968): 447–512. doi:10.1098/rstb.1977.0096.
  2. 1 2 3 Clack, J.A. (1987). "Two new specimens of Anthracosaurus (Amphibia: Anthracosauria) from the Northumberland Coal Measures" (PDF). Palaeontology. 30 (1): 15–26.
  3. ↑ Huxley, T. H. (1863). "Description of Anthracosaurus russelli, a new labyrinthodont from the Lanarkshire coal-field". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 19 (1–2): 56–68. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1863.019.01-02.11. ISSN 0370-291X.
  4. ↑ Watson, D.M.S. (1929). "The Carboniferous Amphibia of Scotland". Palaeontologia Hungarica. 1: 219–252.
  5. ↑ Panchen, A. L.; Tilley, Eileen H.; Steel, C. A. B. (1967). "Discovery of an Anthracosaur Skull in the Durham Coal Measures". Nature. 214 (5092): 1001. doi:10.1038/2141001a0. ISSN 0028-0836.
  6. ↑ Panchen, A.L. (1981). "A jaw ramus of the Coal Measure amphibian Anthracosaurus from Northumberland" (PDF). Palaeontology. 24 (1): 85–92.
  7. ↑ Romer, Alfred S. (1963). "The larger embolomerous amphibians of the American Carboniferous". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. 128: 415–454.
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