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
4. Photograph of type of _Thinopus antiquus_ Marsh, the amphibian
footprint from the Devonian of Pennsylvania. × 1/4. Courtesy of
Dr. Lull. Original No. 784, Vale University Museum.
]
=Cephalerpeton ventriarmatum Moodie.=
Moodie, Kans. Univ. Sci. Bull., VII, No. 2, pp, 350-352, pl. 1, fig.
4; pl. 7, fig. 2, 1912.
Type: Specimen No. 796, of Yale University Museum.
Horizon and locality: Collected at Mazon Creek in 1871, near Morris,
Illinois.
The remains on which the present species is based consist of an almost
entire skull, 26 consecutive vertebræ, both fore limbs, 20 ribs preserved
on the right side of the body, and a portion of the ventral armature
(plate 4, fig. 4).
The skull is very broad posteriorly, its width being one-third greater
than its length, with due allowance for crushing. A pineal foramen is
not preserved. The sutures bounding the premaxillaries, the maxillæ, the
nasals, the prefrontals, the frontals, a portion of the parietals, the
squamosal, the supratemporal, the quadratojugal, and the quadrate (?) are
fairly well preserved. The arrangement of these elements can be discerned
by reference to figure 29. The prefrontals are unusually large and are
triangular in shape. The supratemporal is also quite large. The surface of
the skull bones is smooth and there is nowhere an indication of sculpture.
[Illustration: Fig. 29. Skeleton of _Cephalerpeton ventriarmatum_ Moodie.
× 1.
_pf_, prefrontal; _cl_, clavicle; _m_, mandible; _h_, humerus; _j_, jugal;
_mx_, maxilla; _or_, orbit; _ph_, phalanges of hand; _par_; parietal;
_po_, postorbital; _r_, radius; _sp_, sclerotic plates; _u_, ulna; _vs_,
ventral scutellæ.]
Portions of 4 sclerotic plates are preserved in the right orbit. These
measure 0.5 by 0.75 mm. The orbits are large and the interorbital space is
less than the transverse diameter of the orbit. Thirteen teeth, apparently
pleurodont, are preserved on the left maxilla. They are short, sharply
pointed, smooth, and unequal. The first 2 left maxillary teeth from the
anterior end are short; then follows a tooth which is one-third longer
than these two; the fourth tooth is somewhat shorter than the third; the
fifth and sixth are still shorter and are practically equal in size,
though somewhat larger than the first two.
The right mandible is preserved almost entire, though so badly eroded that
little can be said of its structure. Impressions of 12 teeth are present
on the mandible and all are, apparently, equal. The cotylus seems to have
been far posterior and an angle of the mandible projected slightly back of
the skull.
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