temnospondyl

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English

Reconstructed skeleton of †Eryops megacephalus, a temnospondyl

Etymology

From translingual Temnospondyli, from Ancient Greek τέμνω (témnō, “I cut”) + σπόνδυλος (spóndulos), Ionic/Attic form of σφόνδυλος (sphóndulos, “vertebra”).

Noun

temnospondyl (plural temnospondyls)

  1. (biology) Any of many extinct primitive amphibians (labyrinthodonts) of the order Temnospondyli, from the Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic periods.
    Experts disagree over whether temnospondyls were ancestral to modern amphibians (frogs, salamanders and caecilians), or whether the whole group died out without leaving descendants.
    • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherlands, Penguin, published 2023, page 178:
      Nigerpeton is a temnospondyl, more closely related to modern amphibians than to amniotes, but far bigger than today's diminutive amphibians.

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