The armoured dissorophid Cacops from the Early Permian of Oklahoma and the exploitation of the terrestrial realm by amphibians |
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Authors: | Robert R Reisz Rainer R Schoch Jason S Anderson |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada, L5L 1C6;(2) Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany;(3) Department of Comparative Biology and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Dr., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 4 N1 |
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Abstract: | Cacops, one of the most distinctive Paleozoic amphibians, is part of a clade of dissorophoid temnospondyls that diversified in the
equatorial region of Pangea during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian, persisting into the Late Permian in Central Russia
and China. Dissorophids were a successful group of fully terrestrial, often spectacularly armoured predators, the only amphibians
apparently able to coexist with amniotes when the latter started to dominate terrestrial ecosystems. In this paper, we describe
excellent new skulls from the Early Permian of Oklahoma attributed to Cacops, Cacops morrisi sp. nov. and provide for the first time detailed information about this iconic dissorophid. These specimens show anatomical
and ontogenetic features that will impact on future studies on the evolution of terrestriality in tetrapods. For example,
the large, posteriorly closed tympanic embayment has fine striations on an otherwise smooth surface, documenting the oldest
known clear evidence for the presence of a tympanic membrane in the fossil record, a structure that is used for hearing airborne
sound in extant tetrapods. The skull of C. morrisi also has several features associated with predatory behaviour, indicating that this dissorophid may have been one of the
top terrestrial predators of its time. |
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Keywords: | Paleozoic tetrapods Dissorophid Tympanic notch Ontogeny Early Permian |
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