A New Order of Fishlike Amphibia From the Pennsylvanian of Kansas

University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 12, No. 4, pp. 217-240, 12 figs. May 2, 1960
BY THEODORE H. EATON, JR., AND PEGGY LOU STEWART University of Kansas Lawrence 1960
University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Robert W. Wilson Volume 12, No. 4, pp. 217-240, 12 figs. Published May 2, 1960 University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED IN THE STATE PRINTING PLANT TOPEKA, KANSAS 1960 28-2495

BY THEODORE H. EATON, JR., AND PEGGY LOU STEWART
A slab of shale obtained in 1955 by Mr. Russell R. Camp from a Pennsylvanian lagoon-deposit in Anderson County, Kansas, has yielded in the laboratory a skeleton of the small amphibian Hesperoherpeton garnettense Peabody (1958). This skeleton provides new and surprising information not available from the holotype, No. 9976 K. U., which consisted only of a scapulocoracoid, neural arch, and rib fragment. The new specimen, No. 10295 K. U., is of the same size and stage of development as the holotype and it is thought that both individuals are adults.
The quarry, University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Locality KAN 1/D, is approximately six miles northwest of Garnett, Anderson County, Kansas, in Sec. 5, T. 19S, R. 19E, 200 yards southwest of the place where Petrolacosaurus kansensis Lane was obtained (see Peabody, 1952). The Rock Lake shale, deposited under alternately marine and freshwater lagoon conditions, is a thin member of the Stanton limestone formation, Lansing group, Missourian series, and thus is in the lower part of the Upper Pennsylvanian.
Peabody (1958) placed Hesperoherpeton in the order Anthracosauria, suborder Embolomeri, family Cricotidae. Study of the second and more complete specimen reveals that Hesperoherpeton is unlike the known Embolomeri in many important features. The limbs and braincase are more primitive than those so far described in any amphibian. The vertebrae are comparable to those of Ichthyostegalia (Jarvik, 1952), as well as to those of Embolomeri. The forelimb is transitional between the pectoral fin of Rhipidistia and the limb of early Amphibia. The pattern of the bones of the forelimb closely resembles, but is simpler than, that of the hypothetical transitional type suggested by Eaton (1951). The foot seemingly had only four short digits. The hind limb is not known.