Anthracodromeus

Anthracodromeus is an extinct genus of Late Carboniferous (late Westphalian stage) protorothyridid known from Ohio. It is known from the holotype AMNH 6940, a nearly complete skeleton. It was collected in the Linton site in Jefferson County, from the upper Freeport Coal Member. A. longipes was first assigned by Edward Drinker Cope in 1875 to a species of Sauropleura. The genus was first named by Robert L. Carroll and Donald Baird in 1972 and the type species is Anthracodromeus longipes.[1]

Anthracodromeus
Temporal range: Late Carboniferous, 307.1–305 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Family: †Protorothyrididae
Genus: †Anthracodromeus
Carroll & Baird, 1972
Species:
†A. longipes
Binomial name
†Anthracodromeus longipes
(Cope, 1875 [originally Sauropleura])

Features and environment

Anthracodromeus was between 15 and 20 cm long when alive, with about 5 cm of this being tail.[2] It had a long body, with 27 vertebrae between the five cervical vertebrae and the sacrum. Each vertebra had a short pair of ribs attached to it. The limbs were quite short, but each foot was at least 2 cm long - as long as the rest of the limb put together. There are 20 caudal vertebrae in the tail, but unlike the thoracic/lumbar vertebrae, these do not have neural spines. The scapulae and much of the skull are missing, as is the lower jaw. The parietals, temporals and occipitals are present, as is the edge of the eye socket, but nothing further forward than this. As we have no teeth from the specimen, it is impossible to tell what it ate, except that it must have been something quite small, probably insects or vegetation. It probably lived in swamps full of tree ferns, as were common in the Carboniferous and shown by the fact it was found in coal. It would have been a fast runner - the small size and large feet may have been an adaptation to let it walk over marshy ground, but there is no real evidence for this.

References
  1. Robert L. Carroll & Donald Baird (1972). "Carboniferous Stem-Reptiles of the Family Romeriidae". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 143 (5): 321–363.
  2. "Anthracodromeus longipes - Palaeocritti - a guide to prehistoric animals". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2018-06-10.


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