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Article: A Lower Carboniferous aïstopod amphibian from Scotland

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 25
Part: 1
Publication Date: January 1982
Page(s): 193 208
Author(s): Carl F. Wellstead
DOI:
Addition Information

How to Cite

WELLSTEAD, C. F. 1982. A Lower Carboniferous aïstopod amphibian from Scotland. Palaeontology25, 1, 193–208.

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The Palaeontological Association (Free Access)

Abstract

'Ophiderpeton', a mid-Visean aistopod from the Wardie Shales near Edinburgh is described. Although 'Ophiderpeton' possesses many of the attributes characteristic of aistopods and seems generally more closely comparable to ophiderpetontids than to phlegethontiids, details of cranial anatomy such as possession of a relatively short skull, short parietals, and the absence of a tabular-parietal contact, as well as the presence of spinal-nerve foramina in only a portion of the vertebral column and the absence of tetra-radiate ribs, postcranially, distinguishes''Ophiderpeton' from both of the currently recognized aistopod families. On the basis of these differences, 'Ophiderpeton' is renamed, Lethiscus stocki, and a new family, Lethiscidae, is erected to hold the new species.
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