Tupilakosauridae is an extinct family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of dvinosauria

Dvinosauria

Dvinosaurs are one of several new clades of Temnospondyl amphibians named in the phylogenetic review of the group by Yates and Warren 2000. They represent a group of primitive semi-aquatic to completely aquatic amphibians, and are known from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Triassic, being most...

n temnospondyls. It contains the genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 Slaugenhopia

Slaugenhopia

Slaugenhopia is an extinct genus of dvinosaurian temnospondyl within the family Tupilakosauridae. Fossils have been found from the Early Permian San Angelo Formation in Texas. The type and only species, S. texensis, was named in 1962. It may be closely related to the dvinosaur Kourerpeton...

, Thabanchuia

Thabanchuia

Thabanchuia is an extinct genus of dvinosaurian temnospondyl within the family Tupilakosauridae.-See also:* Prehistoric amphibian* List of prehistoric amphibians...

, Tupilakosaurus

Tupilakosaurus

Tupilakosaurus is an extinct genus of dvinosaurian temnospondyl within the family Tupilakosauridae.-See also:* Prehistoric amphibian* List of prehistoric amphibians...

, and possibly Kourerpeton

Kourerpeton

Kourerpeton is an extinct genus of dvinosaurian temnospondyl. Fossils of Kourerpeton were discovered in a window of a barber's shop in either Bisbee or Mesa, Arizona. Kourerpeton was named in 1976, with the type and only species being K. bradyi...

. Tupilakosaurs are known from Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The earliest tupilakosaur, Slaugenhopia, is Early Permian in age while the latest known tupilakosaurs are Early Triassic

Early Triassic

The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between 251 ± 0.4 Ma and 245 ± 1.5 Ma . Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic, which is a unit in chronostratigraphy...

 in age. Derived

Derived

In phylogenetics, a derived trait is a trait that is present in an organism, but was absent in the last common ancestor of the group being considered. This may also refer to structures that are not present in an organism, but were present in its ancestors, i.e. traits that have undergone secondary...

 tupilakosaurs possess embolomerous centra in their vertebrae, which are diplospondylous. They also have a deep notch in the pterygoid bone of the palate. Tupilakosaurs were aquatic, and used an undulatory

Undulatory locomotion

Undulatory locomotion is the type of motion characterized by wave-like movement patterns that act to propel an animal forward. Examples of this type of gait include crawling in snakes, or swimming in the lamprey...

 mode of swimming much like that of eel

Eel

Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...

s.

External links

• Tupilakosauridae in the Paleobiology Database
  Paleobiology Database
  ' is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms.-History:The Paleobiology Database was founded in 2000. It has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council...