![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Eryops_megacephalus_-_Reconstruction_of_skeleton.jpg/640px-Eryops_megacephalus_-_Reconstruction_of_skeleton.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Euskelia
Extinct clade of amphibians / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Euskelia is a proposed clade of extinct temnospondyl amphibians. The naming derives from the ancient Greek eu, meaning "true", and skelos, meaning "limb", in reference to well-ossified limb bones with crests to which muscles were attached.[1] Members of this group have the most ossified skeleton of all temnospondyls.[2]
Euskelia | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Mounted skeleton of Eryops, American Museum of Natural History | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Order: | †Temnospondyli |
Suborder: | †Euskelia Yates and Warren, 2000 |
Superfamilies | |
Synonyms | |
|
Euskelia is a stem-based taxon including all temnospondyls more closely related to Eryops (an eryopoid) than to Parotosuchus (a stereospondyl). The clade was named by Yates & Warren (2000), whose phylogenetic analysis argued that eryopoids were more closely related to dissorophoids than to stereospondyls. Euskelia was intended to encompass the terrestrial eryopoid+dissorophoid clade, opposite to the clade Limnarchia, which included aquatic groups such as dvinosaurs and stereospondylomorphs.[1]
Other studies propose a different structure of the temnospondyl family tree. For example, Schoch (2013) considered eryopoids to be closer to stereospondylomorphs than to dissorophoids. That study offered the name Eryopiformes for the eryopoid+stereospondylomorph clade, excluding dissorophoids.[3]