Origins of Amphibians and Reptiles Flashcards
Evolutionary History of amphibians and reptiles
For more than 100 million years, amphibians remained the dominant land vertebrates. Then some of them evolved into reptiles. Once reptiles appeared, with their amniotic eggs, they replaced amphibians as the dominant land vertebrates
This period is famous for its vast swamp forests. Such swamps produced the coal from which the term “carbon-bearing,” is derived.
The Carboniferous Period, 320 Ma
In this period, Amphibians have successfully exploited most
terrestrial environments while remaining closely tied
to water or moist microhabitats for reproduction
Carboniferous, 320 Ma
is a subclass or clade of Reptiles which are variously defined as an extinct group of primitive anapsids.
Parareptilia
are one of the groups that emerged through cladistic studies of amniote evolution, “true reptiles”
Eureptilia
It is a subclass of living amphibians with three distinctive orders
Lissamphibia
a fossil that represents the divergence of birds within reptiles
Archaeopteryx
The recent discovery of many specimens of this elpistostegalian sarcopterygian
from a single Late Devonian locality in Arctic Canada greatly improved our understanding of the transition to tetrapods within fishes.
Tiktaalik
a four-footed animal, especially a member of a group which includes all vertebrates higher than fishes
-an object or structure with four feet, legs, or supports.
Tetrapods
Major Features of Early Tetrapod Evolution
-Movement (fins to limb)
-Respiration (lungs)
-Feeding (functional neck in Tiktaalik)
-Skin (skin of larval amphibian and fish are similar)
-Sense organs (Aquatic to aerial perception)
-A species that lived in the heavily vegetated, shallow water
-this creature had stumpy legs and a long tail, which were probably used for propulsion in water.
Acanthostega ichthyostega
Tetrapods in the Late Devonian were aquatic or semiaquatic at best, but adaptations had appeared that would permit them to become terrestrial. T/ F
True
In this period tetrapods were aquatic or
semiaquatic at best, but adaptations had appeared that would permit them to become terrestrial. What is this period?
Late Devonian
When is the first tetrapod known?
Late Devonian
The first amphibian is from?
Middle Mississippian
