Nannaroter
| Nannaroter Temporal range: Early Permian | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Subclass: | Lepospondyli |
| Order: | Microsauria |
| Suborder: | Tuditanomorpha |
| Family: | Ostodolepidae |
| Genus: | Nannaroter Anderson et al., 2009 |
| Species | |
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Nannaroter is an extinct genus of tuditanomorph microsaur within the family Ostodolepidae. It is known from only the holotype specimen, which was found in the Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry in Oklahoma. The holotype, a well preserved skull, was found in Early Permian-aged fissure fill deposits in Ordovician limestone.[1]
Nannaroter is the smallest known ostodolepid. Like other ostodolepids, it has a wedge-shaped skull, a pointed snout, and a temporal emargination. The skull is highly ossified in order to resist anteroposteriorly directed forces. There is a large triangular pterygoid-epipterygoid complex that reinforces the posterolateral wall of the braincase. The walls of the orbits, or eye sockets, are thickened. The high degree of ossification in the skull of Nannaroter is seen as an adaptation to a fossorial, or burrowing, lifestyle.[1]
References
- 1 2 Anderson, J.S.; Scott, D.; Reisz, R.R. (2009). "Nannaroter mckinziei, a new ostodolepid 'microsaur' (Tetrapoda, Lepospondyli, Recumbirostra) from the Early Permian of Richards Spur (Ft. Sill), Oklahoma". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (2): 379–388. doi:10.1671/039.029.0222.