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Euskelia

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Euskelia
Temporal range: Pennsylvanian - Early Triassic, 307.1–249 Ma
Mounted skeleton of Eryops, American Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Temnospondyli
Suborder: Euskelia
Yates and Warren, 2000
Superfamilies
Synonyms
  • Eryopia

Euskelia is a proposed clade of extinct temnospondyl amphibians. The naming derives from the ancient Greek eu, meaning "true", and skelos, meaning "limb", in reference to well-ossified limb bones with crests to which muscles were attached.[1] Members of this group have the most ossified skeleton of all temnospondyls.[2]

Euskelia is a stem-based taxon including all temnospondyls more closely related to Eryops (an eryopoid) than to Parotosuchus (a stereospondyl). The clade was named by Yates & Warren (2000), whose phylogenetic analysis argued that eryopoids were more closely related to dissorophoids than to stereospondyls. Euskelia was intended to encompass the terrestrial eryopoid+dissorophoid clade, opposite to the clade Limnarchia, which included aquatic groups such as dvinosaurs and stereospondylomorphs.[1]

Other studies propose a different structure of the temnospondyl family tree. For example, Schoch (2013) considered eryopoids to be closer to stereospondylomorphs than to dissorophoids. That study offered the name Eryopiformes for the eryopoid+stereospondylomorph clade, excluding dissorophoids.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Yates, A. M.; Warren, A. A. (2000). "The phylogeny of the 'higher' temnospondyls (Vertebrata: Choanata) and its implications for the monophyly and origins of the Stereospondyli". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 128: 77–121. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2000.tb00650.x.
  2. ^ Immaturity vs paedomorphism: a rhinesuchid stereospondyl postcranium from the Upper Permian of South Africa
  3. ^ Schoch, R. R. (2013). "The evolution of major temnospondyl clades: An inclusive phylogenetic analysis". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 11: 673–705. doi:10.1080/14772019.2012.699006.