Nigerpeton

Nigerpeton
Temporal range: Changhsingian
↓
Nigerpeton
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Temnospondyli
Family: †Cochleosauridae
Subfamily: †Cochleosaurinae
Genus: †Nigerpeton
Sidor et al., 2005
Species
  • Nigerpeton ricqlesi

Nigerpeton (Niger, for the country, and herpeton (Greek), meaning crawler)[1] is an extinct genus of crocodile-like temnospondyls from the late Permian (Changhsingian) period.[2] These temnospondyls lived in modern-day Niger, which was once part of central Pangaea, about 250 million years ago. Nigerpeton is a member of the Cochleosauridae family, a group of edopoid temnospondyl amphibians known from the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and early Permian (Cisuralian).[2]

  1. ^ Sidor, C.A., O’Keefe, F.R., Damiani, R., Steyer, J.S., Smith, R.M.H., Larsson, H.C.E., Sereno, P.C., Ide, O., Maga, A., 2005. Permian tetrapods from the Sahara show climate-controlled endemism in Pangaea. Nature 434, 886–889. doi:10.1038/nature03393
  2. ^ a b Steyer, J.S., Damiani, R., Sidor, C.A., O’Keefe, F.R., Larsson, H.C.E., Maga, A., Ide, O., 2006. The vertebrate fauna of the Upper Permian of Niger. IV. Nigerpeton ricqlesi (Temnospondyli: Cochleosauridae), and the edopoid colonization of Gondwana. J. Vert. Paleontol. 26, 18–28. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[18:TVFOTU2.0.CO;2]