Stem caecilian from the Triassic of Colorado sheds light on the origins of Lissamphibia.

ABSTRACT: The origin of the limbless caecilians remains a lasting question in vertebrate evolution. Molecular phylogenies and morphology support that caecilians are the sister taxon of batrachians (frogs and salamanders), from which they diverged no later than the early Permian. Although recent efforts have discovered new, early members of the batrachian lineage, the record of pre-Cretaceous caecilians is limited to a single species, Eocaecilia micropodia The position of Eocaecilia within tetrapod phylogeny is controversial, as it already acquired the specialized morphology that characterizes modern caecilians by the Jurassic. Here, we report on a small amphibian from the Upper Triassic of Colorado, United States, with a mélange of caecilian synapomorphies and general lissamphibian ple

SUBMITTER: Pardo JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5502650 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature