Ophiderpeton brownriggi

Ophiderpeton is an aistopod, a snake-like limbless lepospondyl amphibian from the Lower Carboniferous of Ireland and Scotland. Ophiderpeton became extinct during the Permian Period. Ophiderpeton had a broader skull than the other aistopods and probably lived either an aquatic or a semi-aquatic life, feeding on small animals. Its body was very elongate with a long vertebral column; it probably lived a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Several species originally described as Ophiderpeton were transferred to different genera, such as Oestecephalus amphiuminum, a well known species from the Upper Carboniferous of Ohio. Today, there is only two species that are considered to belong to Ophiderpeton: O. brownriggi from Ireland and O. kirktonense from Scotland.

Name

Ophiderpeton brownriggi

Authority

Wright and Huxley, 1866

Meaning of generic name

Snake Crawler

Size

Skull length: 4 cm, Length: 70 cm

Remains

Nearly complete skeleton

Age and Distribution

Lower carboniferous (Visean), Coal measures of Jarrow Colliery, Ireland.

[How come the Arizona page links here too? Ah, it is swisshelmense in Arizona, no longer considered part of genus!]

Classification

Lepospondyli Aistopoda Ophiderpetontidae

Further Reading

Huxley, T. H., in Wright E. P., and Huxley T. H., 1866, On a collection of fossils from the Jarrow Colliery, Kilkenna: Geological Magazine, v. 3, p. 165-171.

Image by Nobu Tamura (click to enlarge)

Ophiderpeton brownriggi: