Koilops

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

Koilops is an extinct genus of four-limbed stem-tetrapod from the Mississippian (mid-Tournaisian) of Scotland. It contains a single species, Koilops herma, based on a mold of an 8.0 cm (3.1 in.)-long skull from the Ballagan Formation. A phylogenetic analysis in its original description places Koilops as a close relative of Tulerpeton and colosteids. Koilops 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, Ossirarus, and Perittodus.[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.