Lydekkerina
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Lydekkerina Temporal range: Early Triassic |
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| Life restoration of Lyddekerina huxleyi | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Temnospondyli |
| Suborder: | †Stereospondyli |
| Family: | †Lydekkerinidae |
| Genus: |
†Lydekkerina Broom, 1915 |
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Lydekkerina is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyl. It is the type genus of the family Lydekkerinidae. Fossils have been collected from Early Triassic deposits in South Africa and Australia. The type species is L. huxleyi, first described in 1889. While most other stereospondyls were semiaquatic, Lydekkerina was exclusively terrestrial.
Lydekkerina was a relatively small temnospondyl, growing up to around 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length. Skulls range in length from 49 millimetres (1.9 in) in the smallest known individual to up to 100 millimetres (3.9 in) in larger individuals. The skull is wedge-shaped and has a parabolic outline with convex lateral margins. Shallow pits cover the surface of the skull. Teeth line the palate as well as the jaws, and some skulls even bear large ectopterygoid tusks on the underside of the skull.
Lydekkerina can be distinguished from other lydekkerinids on the basis of several skull characteristics. One such feature is the presence of vomerine shagreen, tiny bumps covering the bones of the palate. An opening at the tip of the palate called the anterior palatal vacuity is divided by two projections of the skull roof, a second distinctive feature of the genus. Moreover, distinctive ridges are present on the underside of the skull roof around the eye sockets, probably to provide structural support.
Lydekkerina huxleyi was first briefly described as a species of Bothriceps by Richard Lydekker in 1889. The specific name honors Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist who named the genus Bothriceps in 1859 from material in Australia.Robert Broom, a South African paleontologist, provided a more accurate description of the species in 1915 and reassigned it to the new genus Lydekkerina, named after Lydekker.
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