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 humerus lies somewhat to one side of the pectoral girdle, as if
there had been a large amount of epiphyseal cartilage. Its position may
be due to post-mortem shifting, but there is little other evidence of
any movement after deposition. The humerus is a large, heavy bone in
comparison with the rest of the skeleton. It is expanded at each end, and
its ends show concavities, proving that the bone is formed principally
of perichondral tissue, as would be expected from such an early
Branchiosaurian. The endochondrium has not yet developed in this form,
which is evidently adult. There is no other element of the arm present.
There is but a single element of the pelvis preserved, a slender elongate
rod which is undoubtedly the ilium, since it has the usual position for
that element and is much too large for a sacral rib. It has much the same
shape as the ilium in the modern _Salamandra_, and is not expanded as is
the ilium of _Branchiosaurus_. This element, like the humerus, seems to
have been but a hollow cylinder of bone and undoubtedly had cartilaginous
ends, as in the ilium of the recent _Salamandra_. The two femora are
preserved nearly entire, the right one lying upon and partly obscuring the
sacral vertebra. The femur is much more slender than is the humerus, with
slightly expanded ends, and, like the humerus, shows the concavities at
the ends, indicative of the perichondral character of the tissue composing
it. There are two elements of the leg preserved more or less entire. The
larger bone may represent the tibia and the smaller the fibula. They both
present characters similar to those of the femur and humerus. They are
simple rods of bone tapering at the distal end. The feet have been lost,
though doubtless they were present at one time.
The ventral surface of the body, as in other members of the
Branchiosauria, was covered and protected by a series of small scutes
arranged in the regular chevron pattern. The form of the scutes and their
number can not be determined. The lines which represent them are, however,
distinct. Some of the scutes are missing and some of them are obscured
by lying over the vertebral column. They are all somewhat shifted to the
left. The lines are very small and close together. I count 16 of them
in a distance of 2 mm. In length the longest line preserved is a little
more than 4 mm., measuring from the point of the chevron. The lines
representing the scutes come to a point in a median ridge which is now
represented by a line. The dermal scutes on the abdomen were probably the
forerunners of the abdominal ribs of the reptiles (fig. 9).
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