Paleothyris

Paleothyris was a small, agile, anapsid romeriidan reptile which lived in the Middle Pennsylvanian epoch in Nova Scotia (approximately 312 to 304 million years ago). Paleothyris had sharp teeth and large eyes, meaning that it was a nocturnal hunter. It was about a foot long. It probably fed on insects and other smaller animals found on the floor of its forest home. The reason that they were able to do this and hunt so well was not only due to the fact that they hunted in the dark, but because they had a long head structure which helped them catch small, quicker prey. Paleothyris was an early sauropsid, yet it still had some features that were more primitive, more labyrinthodont-like than reptile-like, especially its skull, which lacked fenestrae, holes found in the skulls of most modern reptiles and mammals.[1]

Paleothyris
Temporal range: Middle Pennsylvanian, 312–304 Ma
Skull diagram
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Genus: Paleothyris
Carroll, 1969
Species:
P. acadiana
Binomial name
Paleothyris acadiana
Carroll, 1969

See also

Life restoration.

References

Arjan, Mann, et al. “Carbonodraco Lundi Gen Et Sp. Nov., the Oldest Parareptile, from Linton, Ohio, and New Insights into the Early Radiation of Reptiles.” Royal Society Open Science, 27 Nov. 2019, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.191191.

  1. Carroll, Robert L. (January 1969). "A Middle Pennsylvanian Captorhinomorph, and the Interrelationships of Primitive Reptiles". Journal of Paleontology. 43 (1): 151–170. JSTOR 1302357.


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