. The dinosaur book : the ruling reptiles and their relatives. Dinosaurs; Reptiles, Fossil. CREATURES THAT LEFT THE WATER: The rise and decline of the labyrinthodont amphibians. The primitive labyrinthodonts, such as the Pennsylvanian form, Diploverte- bron, were long-bodied and rather weak- limbed animals, not so very far removed from their fish ancestors. The peak of labyrintho- dont evolution was reached in large, robust, rather aggressive Permian types, such as Eryops. Finally in Triassic times these verte- brates returned to the water from which their ancestors had emerged, so that the he
. The dinosaur book : the ruling reptiles and their relatives. Dinosaurs; Reptiles, Fossil. CREATURES THAT LEFT THE WATER: The rise and decline of the labyrinthodont amphibians. The primitive labyrinthodonts, such as the Pennsylvanian form, Diploverte- bron, were long-bodied and rather weak- limbed animals, not so very far removed from their fish ancestors. The peak of labyrintho- dont evolution was reached in large, robust, rather aggressive Permian types, such as Eryops. Finally in Triassic times these verte- brates returned to the water from which their ancestors had emerged, so that the head and body became flat and the limbs were reduced in size and strength, as in Buettneria Restorations hy John C. German]]. Buettneria Diplovertebron ops). This large amphibian is found in the Permian beds of Texas, and as may be seen, it was a strong, heavy, land-living animal. Here was the high point in amphibian evolution. Look at En/ops and you see the culmination of development in the Am- phibia, an animal that was a truly dominant element in his environment. All that went before was building up to this climax in amphibian history, all that has come since is in a sense an anticlimax. There were various amphibians^con- temporaneous with Eryops. Some of them were small, active labyrinthodonts^JOthers were not labyrinthodonts at all, for at that time there were several lines of amphibian development evolving side by side. Per-. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Colbert, Edwin H. (Edwin Harris), 1905-2001; Knight, Charles Robert, 1874-1953; American Museum of Natural History. New York : Published for the American Museum of Natural History by McGraw-Hill
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Keywords: ., bookauthoramericanmu, bookcentury1900, booksubjectreptilesfossil
