Pholiderpeton

Name: Pholiderpeton.
Phonetic: Fol-e-der-pe-ton.
Named By: Huxley‭ ‬-‭ ‬1896.
Synonyms: Eogyrinus‭?
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Tetrapoda,‭ ‬Reptiliomorpha,‭ ‬Embolomeri,‭ ‬Eogyrinidae.
Species: P.‭ ‬scutigerum‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Between 2 and 4.6 meters long, depending upon species.
Known locations: England,‭ ‬Yorkshire.
Time period: Westphalian of the Carboniferous.
Fossil representation: Skull and forward portion of the post cranial skeleton.

       Pholiderpeton was a genus of semi aquatic reptiliomorph that lived in England during the Carboniferous period.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬in recent time there has been speculation that Pholiderpeton and another well-known genus named Eogyrinus may actually represent the same genus of animal.‭ ‬If this is true then the first genus to be named would take priority,‭ ‬and in this case that you be Pholiderpeton,‭ ‬since it was named thirty years before Eogyrinus.‭ ‬This‭ ‬might also call for a change to‭ ‬the family name the Eogyrinidae,‭ ‬since you usually can’t call a family group of animals after a genus that no longer exists.
       As an actual animal,‭ ‬Pholiderpeton had a proportionately long and narrow body with greatly reduced limbs.‭ ‬This body form meant that Pholiderpeton could easily navigate through the clogged swamps and water systems as it hunted for other vertebrates such as fish and amphibians.

Further reading
-‭ ‬Pholiderpeton scutigerum Huxley,‭ ‬an amphibian from the Yorkshire Coal Measures.‭ ‬-‭ ‬Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London,‭ ‬Series B‭ ‬318‭(‬1188‭)‬:‭ ‬1-107.‭ ‬-‭ ‬Jennifer A.‭ ‬Clack‭ ‬-‭ ‬1987.



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