The Coal Measures Amphibia of North AmericaMoodie, Roy Lee
Science
The Coal Measures Amphibia of North America
Moodie, Roy Lee
Amphibians, Fossil -- North America; Paleontology -- Carboniferous; Paleontology -- North America
The publication of the type species of this genus began the researches
of Professor Cope on the extinct Amphibia of North America, which he
continued for so many years with such excellent results (105-177). The
description was based on a single specimen (plate 3, fig. 7) belonging
to Mr. Joseph Evans, of Morris, Illinois, who loaned it to Dr. Worthen
for the Illinois Geological State Survey (107), in order that it might
be described. The type has been destroyed by fire; so I am informed by
Mr. L. E. Daniels, of Rolling Prairie, Indiana. There are two other known
specimens of the species. One is in the collection of Mr. Daniels and the
other No. 794, of Yale University Museum.
This genus may be clearly separated from all the other microsaurians by
characters which are peculiar to the form. Among these may be mentioned
the possession of sclerotic plates in the eyes; the large size of the
orbits in comparison with the dimensions of the skull; the short, broad
form of the body; the very short tail; the possession of a calcified
cartilaginous pubis; clawed phalanges; presacrals 22. The character which
places the genus distinctly in the Microsauria is the possession of long,
slender, curved ribs, first detected on Mr. Daniels's specimen (plate 14,
figs. 1, 2), by Dr. Hay (316). Its stegocephalian characters are evident
in every particular of its anatomy the roofed skull, the arrangement of
the cranial elements, the presence of a well-developed ventral armature,
and the digital formula (4 for the hand and 5 for the foot).
The genus _Amphibamus_ was regarded by Cope as a representative of a new
order of vertebrates which he called (105) Xenorachia. He later (123)
abandoned this, however. Fritsch (251), Zittel (642), and others regarded
_Amphibamus_ as a branchiosaurian. The exact position of the form was
uncertain until 1900, when Dr. Hay (316) described the long, curved ribs
and suggested its place among the Microsauria. He, however (Cat. Foss.
Vert., p. 410), made the mistake of including the branchiosaurian family
Protritonidæ, under Microsauria, thus confusing the subject further. The
genus (462) has not the slightest relationship with the Branchiosauria.
=Amphibamus grandiceps Cope.=
Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., pp. 134-137, 1865; Geol. Surv.
Ills., 11, pp. 135-141, pl. xxxii, and 1 woodcut, 1866.
Hay, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., XXXIX, p. 120, 1900.
Moodie, Jour. Geol., XVII, No. 1, p. 82, fig. 24, 1909.
Moodie, Kan. Univ. Sci. Bull., VI, No. 2, pp. 343-349, pl. 1, figs. 1
and 2; pl. 5, fig. 3; pl. 7, fig. 1; pl. 11, 12, 13, 1912.
Type: Specimen has been destroyed. There is an excellent specimen (plate
4, figs. 5. 6), No. 794 (1234), in Yale University Museum, and another
nearly as good in the possession of Mr. L. E. Daniels, of Rolling Prairie,
Indiana.
Horizon and locality: Mazon Creek shales, near Morris, Illinois.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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