Pederpes
Reconstruction of life image
- Scotland in Dumbarton
- P. finneyae Clack, 2002 ( type )
Pederpes is an extinct genus of early Carboniferous terrestrial vertebrates from the Tournaisian of Europe.
Discovery
Pederpes was discovered in 1971 in Central Scotland at Dumbarton and described as flesh -finned fishes. The fossils were found in the Ballagan lineup. The type was an almost complete, articulated skeleton, missing only the tail and some bones of the skull and limbs. 2002 saw Jennifer Clack that it was an early land vertebrate and described it new.
Pederpes is a major fossil because it comes from the time the known centromeric gap.
Physique and lifestyle
This most extensive land vertebrate was 1 m long and had a large, slightly triangular head similar to his later American sister genus Whatcheeria, from which it differs by various skeletal features, such as a sharp -like latissimus dorsi ( an arm muscle ) attachment on the upper arm bone and some smaller skull characteristics. The feet have characteristics, which distinguish them from the paddle-shaped feet of the Devonian Ichthyostegalia and resemble the feet of later, more country adapted Carboniferous forms. Pederpes is the earliest known land vertebrate animal that shows the beginning of terrestrial locomotion and despite the probable presence of a sixth digit on the forelimb was provided, at least functionally with 5 fingers.
The shape of the skull and the fact that the feet forward rather than sideways showed, suggesting the Pederpes was well adapted to life on land. It is currently the first known complete, terrestrial animals, although the structure of the ear indicates that it could hear better than on land under water and much of his time spent in the water and could hunt there.
The narrow skull suggests that Pederpes more muscle controlled like most modern land vertebrates breathed, rather than with a throat sac to pump air into the lungs like most modern amphibians.