Ancient Amphibian Cyclotosaurus Triassic Navajo County Arizona
Temnospondyli are an important and extremely diverse taxon of small to giant primitive amphibians that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic periods. A few stragglers continued into the Cretaceous. During their evolutionary history they adapted to a very wide range of habitats, including fresh-water aquatic, semi-aquatic, amphibious, terrestrial, and in one group even near-shore marine, and their fossil remains have been found on every continent. Authorities disagree over whether some specialised forms were ancestral to some modern amphibians, or whether the whole group died out without leaving any descendants. During the Triassic period these animals dominated the fresh-water ecosystems, evolving in a range of both small and large forms. During the Early Triassic[ - Ma] one group of successful long-snouted fish eaters, the Trematosaurs, even adapted to a life in the sea, the only known amphibians to do so. The Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, Ma, killed all the giant temnospondyls. Only the smaller Brachyopidae and Chigutisauridae survived.
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Photo credit: © Phil Degginger / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: amphibian, ancient, arizona, county, cyclotosaurus, fossil, fossils, navajo, skull, temnospondyli, tetrapods, triassic
