Araeoscelida
| Araeoscelidia Temporal range: Carboniferous - Permian 307–275.6 Ma |
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| Life restoration of Petrolacosaurus kansensis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Diapsida |
| Order: |
†Araeoscelidia Williston, 1913 |
| Subgroups | |
Araeoscelidia or Araeoscelida is a clade of extinct diapsid reptiles superficially resembling lizards, extending from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian. The group contains the genera Araeoscelis, Petrolacosaurus, the possibly aquatic Spinoaequalis, and less well-known genera such as Kadaliosaurus and Zarcasaurus. This clade is considered to be the sister group to all (currently known) later diapsids.
Araeoscelidians were small animals (less than one meter in length) looking somewhat like lizards, though they are only distantly related to true lizards. They differ from other, earlier sauropsids by their slender limbs, their elongated tail, and of course by the presence of two temporal openings, the feature defining the diapsid condition. In Araeoscelis, only the upper temporal opening remains, thus resulting in a derived euryapsid condition.
Araeoscelidia includes well-known genera such as Araeoscelis (Williston, 1910; Vaughn, 1955; Reisz et al., 1984), Petrolacosaurus (Lane, 1945; Peabody, 1952; Reisz, 1981) and Spinoaequalis (deBraga & Reisz, 1995; deBraga & Rieppel, 1997), known from virtually complete skeletons. Zarcasaurus (Brinkman et al., 1984), Aphelosaurus (Gervais, 1859; Thévenin, 1910; Falconnet & Steyer, 2007) and Kadaliosaurus (Credner, 1889) belong to this clade, but are known only from post-cranial remains and a mandible fragment for Zarcasaurus.
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