The earliest known Salamanders (Amphibia, Caudata):A record from the Middle Jurassic of England
Abstract
Marmorerpeton gen. nov. represented by M. kermackisp. nov. and M. freemani sp. nov., is the earliest known genus of fossil salamander from the Upper Bathonian, Middle Jurassic of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, England. Marmorerpeton is more primitive than any other known salamander in the absence of intravertebral spinal nerve foramina in the atlantal centrum, but in other features it resembles members of the family Scapherpetontidae, neotenous salamanders otherwise known from the Upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene. The Kirtlington herpetofauna is a unique freshwater assemblage of Middle Jurassic small amphibians and reptiles, several of which represent the earliest known occurrences of their respective groups.
- Publication:
-
Géobios
- Pub Date:
- 1988
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 1988Geobi..21..539E
- Keywords:
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- Amphibia;
- Caudata;
- Morphology;
- Systematics;
- Jurassic;
- England