Perittodus

Perittodus
Temporal range: early mid-Tournaisian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Sarcopterygii
Clade: Tetrapodomorpha
Clade: Stegocephali
Genus: Perittodus
Clack et al., 2016
Type species
Perittodus apsconditus
Clack et al., 2016

Perittodus is an extinct genus of four-limbed stem-tetrapod from the Mississippian (mid-Tournaisian) of Scotland. It contains a single species, Perittodus apsconditus, based on disarticulated skull and postcranial bones from the Ballagan Formation. The lower jaw of the holotype specimen was about 6.8 cm (2.7 in.) in length and had a pattern of dentition similar to the Devonian taxon Ymeria. Perittodus was described in a 2016 study which was devised to fill in the tetrapod and stem-tetrapod faunas of Romer's gap, an interval of the early Carboniferous with few vertebrate fossils. It was one of five new genera named in this study, along with Aytonerpeton, Diploradus, Koilops, and Ossirarus.[1]

References

  1. ^ Clack, Jennifer A.; Bennett, Carys E.; Carpenter, David K.; Davies, Sarah J.; Fraser, Nicholas C.; Kearsey, Timothy I.; Marshall, John E. A.; Millward, David; Otoo, Benjamin K. A.; Reeves, Emma J.; Ross, Andrew J. (2016-12-05). "Phylogenetic and environmental context of a Tournaisian tetrapod fauna". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1 (1): 2. doi:10.1038/s41559-016-0002. hdl:2381/40933. ISSN 2397-334X. PMID 28812555. S2CID 22421017.