Article: A protorothyridid captorhinomorph (Reptilia) from the Upper Carboniferous of Newsham, Northumberland

A description is presented of the skull table of a protorothyridid captorhinomorph reptile from the lower Westphalian B ( Upper Carboniferous) of Newsham, Northumberland. The specimen, which is not named, represents the first reptile to he recorded from the Carboniferous of the British Isles and from the north-west European paralic Coal Measures. It is closely contemporaneous with the earliest undisputed reptiles to have previously been described, from the lower Westphalian B of Joggins, Nova Scotia, and is the oldest fossil reptile yet reported from anywhere outside North America.The specimen forms part of a large assemblage of (mostly aquatic) vertebrates preserved in the bottom sediments of a large coal-swamp lake, and is presumed to represent an erratic derived from a terrestrial/marginal environment.