Edaphosauridae
| Edaphosauridae Temporal range: Late Carboniferous to Early Permian, ~
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| File:Edaphosaurus.jpg | |
| Mounted skeleton of Edaphosaurus pogonias in the Field Museum of Natural History | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Sphenacomorpha |
| Family: | †Edaphosauridae Cope, 1882 |
| Type species | |
| †Edaphosaurus pogonias Cope, 1882
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| Genera | |
Edaphosauridae is a family of mostly large (up to 3 m (9.8 ft) or more) Late Carboniferous to Early Permian synapsids. Edaphosaur fossils are so far known only from North America and Europe.
Characteristics
[edit | edit source]They were the earliest known herbivorous amniotes and, along with the Diadectidae, the earliest known herbivorous tetrapods.[1] The head is small in relation to the bulky body, and there is a tall sail along the back, the purpose of which is unknown and a subject of active research and debate, but which was once widely believed to have functioned as a thermoregulatory device.
Classification
[edit | edit source]The interrelationships of Edaphosauridae was investigated in details by David M. Mazierski and Robert R. Reisz (2010). The cladogram below is modified after their phylogenetic analysis.[3]
| Edaphosauridae | |
Below is a cladogram modified from the analysis of Benson (2012):[4]
References
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- Carroll, R. L. (1988), Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, WH Freeman & Co.
- Reisz, R. R., 1986, Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie – Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology, Part 17A Pelycosauria Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
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