| Echinerpeton Temporal range: Late Carboniferous,
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|---|---|
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| Echinerpeton intermedium fossil | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Metopophora |
| Family: | †Ophiacodontidae |
| Genus: | †Echinerpeton Reisz, 1972 |
| Type species | |
| †Echinerpeton intermedium Reisz, 1972
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Echinerpeton is an extinct genus of synapsid, including the single species Echinerpeton intermedium from the Late Carboniferous of Nova Scotia, Canada. The name means 'spiny lizard' (Greek).[1] Along with its contemporary Archaeothyris, Echinerpeton is the oldest known synapsid, having lived around 308 million years ago. It is known from six small, fragmentary fossils, which were found in an outcrop of the Morien Group near the town of Florence.[2] The most complete specimen preserves articulated vertebrae with high neural spines, indicating that Echinerpeton was a sail-backed synapsid like the better known Dimetrodon, Sphenacodon, and Edaphosaurus. However, the relationship of Echinerpeton to these other forms is unclear, and its phylogenetic placement among basal synapsids remains uncertain.[3]
- ^ Reisz, R. (1972). "Pelycosaurian reptiles from the middle Pennsylvanian of North America". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. 144: 27–61.
- ^ Reisz, R. (1972). "Pelycosaurian reptiles from the Middle Pennsylvanian of North America". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 144 (2): 27–62.
- ^ Benson, R. B. J. (2012). "Interrelationships of basal synapsids: Cranial and postcranial morphological partitions suggest different topologies". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 10 (4): 601–624. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.631042. S2CID 84706899.