Dissorophoidea

Dissorophoidea
Temporal range: Late Carboniferous - Early Triassic, 307.1–249 Ma
Possible descendant taxon Lissamphibia survives to present.
[1]
Skeleton of Cacops aspidephorus in the Field Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Order:Temnospondyli
Suborder:Euskelia
Superfamily:Dissorophoidea
Bolt, 1969
Clades

Dissorophidae
Amphibamidae
Trematopidae
Micromelerpetontidae
Branchiosauridae
Melosauridae

Dissorophoideans are a clade of medium-sized, temnospondyl amphibians that appeared during the Moscovian in Euramerica, and continued through to the Late Permian and even possibly the Early Triassic of Gondwana (if Micropholis belongs here). They are distinguished by various details of the skull,[2] and many forms seem to have been well adapted for life on land.

It has been suggested that they may be ancestral to frogs (Reisz, no date) or even the Lissamphibia as a whole, in which case the latter would be included in this clade.[1]

It is possible that the small Permo-Carboniferous Micromelerpetontidae and the large Late Permian Melosauridae may also belong in this clade.

Phylogeny

An extensive phylogenetic analysis of dissorophoids conducted in 2012 found that the families Dissorophidae and Trematopidae are more closely related to each other than either is to the family Amphibamidae. Following a 2008 study, the Dissorophidae-Trematopidae clade was called Olsoniformes. Below is the cladogram from the 2012 analysis:[3]

Dissorophoidea

Micromelerpetontidae

Micromelerpeton

Amphibamidae

Platyrhinops

Doleserpeton

Olsoniformes

Trematopidae

Ecolsonia

Fedexia

Tambachia

Anconastes

Phonerpeton

Acheloma

Dissorophidae

Platyhystrix

Aspidosaurus

Conjunctio

Dissorophinae

Dissorophus

Broiliellus texensis

Broiliellus brevis

Broiliellus olsoni

Eucacopinae

Brevidorsum

Admiral taxon

Rio Arriba taxon

Cacops morrisi

Cacops aspidephorus

Kamacops

Zygosaurus

References

References

  1. 1 2 Pérez-Ben, C.M. Schoch, R.R. & Báez, A.M. (2018) Miniaturization and morphological evolution in Paleozoic relatives of living amphibians: a quantitative approach. Paleobiology.
  2. (see Laurin & Steyer, 2000, for list of apomorphies)
  3. Schoch, Rainer R. (2012). "Character distribution and phylogeny of the dissorophid temnospondyls" (PDF). Fossil Record. 15 (2): 121–137. doi:10.5194/fr-15-121-2012. ISSN 1435-1943.
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