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Pederpes
genus of the first four-limbed vertebrates and their descendants / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pederpes is an extinct genus of early Carboniferous tetrapod, dating from the lower Mississippian, 348-347.6 million years ago (mya). Pederpes contains one species, P. finneyae, 1 m long. A single fossil was found in East Kirton quarry, West Lothian, Scotland, in early Carboniferous rocks. It is the first (and only) known near-complete skeleton of a tetrapod from the earliest Carboniferous. It lacks only the tail and some digits.[1]
Pederpes Temporal range: Lower Mississippian | |
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Family: | Whatcheeriidae |
Genus: | Pederpes Clack, 2002 |
Species | |
P. finneyae Clack, 2002 (type) |
Pederpes had a large, somewhat triangular head, similar to that of later American Whatcheeria. This specimen shows the earliest example of a foot adapted for walking on land. The feet look like the feet of later, more terrestrially adapted Carboniferous forms. Pederpes is therefore the earliest known tetrapod that walked on land.
It fits in the middle of the a gap in the fossil record which separates the aquatic Devonian tetrapods from the terrestrial ones of the mid-Carboniferous.