Batrachomorpha
| Batrachomorpha | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Diplocaulus, a lepospondyl | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Superclass: | Tetrapoda |
| Clade: |
Batrachomorpha Säve-Söderbergh, 1934 |
| Groups | |
Batrachomorpha ("Frog form") is a name traditionally given to recent and extinct amphibians that are more closely related to modern amphibians than they are to reptiles. It most often includes the extinct groups Temnospondyli and Lepospondyli. The first tetrapods were all amphibians in the generic sense that they laid their eggs in water. Batrachomorphs composed one branch of these early tetrapods, while the reptiliomorphs composed the other. Modern amphibians are descended from one line of Batrachomorphs, while all other modern tetrapods are descended from the one branch of reptiliomorphs, the amniotes. Amniotes achieved dominance, while all other reptiliomorphs and most batrachomorphs have gone extinct.
The name Batrachomorpha was coined by the Swedish palaeontologist Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh in 1934 to refer to ichthyostegids, temnospondyls, anthracosaurs, and the frogs. Säve-Söderbergh held the view that salamanders and caecilians are not related to the other tetrapods, but had developed independently from a different group of lobe-finned fish, the porolepiformes. In this view amphibians would be a biphyletic group, and Batrachomorpha was erected to form a natural group consisting of the "true amphibians" (i.e. frogs in Säve-Söderberghs view) and their fossil relatives. The salamanders and the Lepospondyli was consigned to "Urodelomorpha".
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