Anthracosauria

Anthracosauria refers to a group of extinct reptile-like amphibians that flourished during the Carboniferous and Early Permian periods, although precisely which species are included depends on one's definition of the taxon.

As originally defined by Säve-Söderbergh in 1934, the  anthracosaurs, are a group of usually large aquatic Amphibia from the Carboniferous and lower Permian. As defined by Alfred Sherwood Romer however, the anthracosaurs include all non-amniote "Labyrinthodont" reptile-like amphibians, and Säve-Söderbergh's definition is more equivalent to Romer's suborder Embolomeri. This definition was also used by Edwin H. Colbert and Robert L. Carroll in their textbooks of Vertebrate Palaeontology (Colbert 1969, Carroll 1988). Dr A. L. Panchen however restored the anthracosaurs to Säve-Söderbergh's original definition (Panchen 1970).

With the cladistic revolution things have changed again. Michel Laurin (1996) uses the term in a cladistic sense to refer to only the most reptile-like tetrapods (no longer considered related to modern amphibians) (Diadectomorpha and Solenodonsauridae) and the Amniotes. But Michael Benton (2000, 2004) makes the Anthracosaurs a paraphyletic order within the superorder Reptiliomorpha, along with the orders Seymouriamorpha and Diadectomorpha.

Etymology
The name "Anthracosauria" is Greek ('coal lizards'), because many of its fossils were found in the Coal Measures.

References and external links

 * Benton, M. J. (2004), Vertebrate Palaeontology, Blackwell Science Ltd 3rd ed. - see also taxonomic hierarchy of the vertebrates, according to Benton 2004
 * Carroll, R. L., 1988: Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and company, New York
 * Clack, J. A. (2002), Gaining Ground: the Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods Indiana Univ. Press, 369 pp.
 * Colbert, E. H. (1969), Evolution of the Vertebrates, John Wiley & Sons Inc (2nd ed.)
 * Laurin, Michel (1996) Terrestrial Vertebrates - Stegocephalians: Tetrapods and other digit-bearing vertebrates
 * Palaeos Anthracosauroidea
 * Panchen, A. L. (1970) Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie - Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology Part 5a - Batrachosauria (Anthracosauria), Gutsav Fischer Verlag - Stuttgart & Portland, 83 pp., ISBN 3-89937-021-X web page
 * Systema Naturae 2000 / Classification Order Anthracosauria