Silvanerpeton
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Silvanerpeton Temporal range: Early Carboniferous Brigantian |
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| Life restoration of Silvanerpeton miripedes | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Reptiliomorpha |
| Genus: |
†Silvanerpeton Clack, 1994 |
| Type species | |
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†S. miripedes Clack, 1994 |
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Silvanerpeton is an extinct genus of early reptiliomorph found in East Kirkton Quarry of West Lothian, Scotland, in a sequence from the Brigantian substage of the Viséan (Lower Carboniferous). The find is important, as the quarry represents terrestrial deposits from Romer's gap, a period poor in fossils where the higher groups labyrinthodonts evolved. Based on a remarkably well preserved humerus and other traits, the animal is believed to have been an advanced reptile-like amphibian, close to the origin of amniotes.
In life Silvanerpeton was about 40 cm (1 ft) long. Some paleontologists think it was semi-aquatic as an adult, others believe only young Silvanerpeton were aquatic and the adults were fully terrestrial.
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