The Coal Measures Amphibia of North America

by Roy Lee Moodie

Amphibia from the Linton Beds (51 SPECIES).

Brachydectes newberryi Cope. Fragment of a skull.
Cercariomorphus parvisquamis Cope. Impression of body.
Cocytinus gyrinoides Cope. A skull and anterior dorsal vertebræ.
Ctenerpeton alveolatum Cope. Large portion of skeleton, no skull.
Diceratosaurus lævis Moodie. Complete skull.
Diceratosaurus punctolineatus Cope. Anterior vertebræ, part of skull, with ribs and portion
of ventral armature.
Diceratosaurus robustus Moodie. Incomplete cranium.
Eoserpeton (Ceraterpeton) tenuicorne Cope. Incomplete skull.
Erpetosaurus acutirostris Moodie. Complete skull.
Erpetosaurus obtusus Cope. Incomplete skull.
Erpetosaurus radiatus Cope. Incomplete skull.
Erpetosaurus tabulatus Cope. Incomplete skull, with clavicles.
Erpetosaurus tuberculatus Moodie. Incomplete skull.
Eurythorax sublævis Cope. A single interclavicle. (Operculum of lung fish, Sagenodus.)
Hyphasma lævis Cope. Incomplete skull and anterior vertebræ.
Ichthycanthus ohiensis Cope. Portion of dorsal region.
Ichthycanthus platypus Cope. Posterior portion of body.
Leptophractus dentatus Moodie. Mandible.
Leptophractus lineolatus Cope. Incomplete skull.
Leptophractus obsoletus Cope. Portions of skull.
Macrerpeton deani Moodie. Mandible and part of skull.
Macrerpeton huxleyi Cope. Part of cranium.
Molgophis brevicostatus Cope. Part of vertebral column with ribs.
Molgophis macrurus Cope. Vertebral column.
Molgophis wheatleyi Cope. Part of skull with 25 vertebræ.
Odonterpeton triangularis Moodie. Skull and anterior part of body.
Œstocephalus rectidens Cope. Part of mandible.
Œstocephalus remex Cope. Skull and anterior part of body.
Pelion lyelli Wyman. Cranium, fore part of body, hind limb.
Phlegethontia linearis Cope. Skull and anterior part of body.
Phlegethontia serpens Cope. Series of 22 dorsal vertebræ.
Pleuroptyx clavatus Cope. Part of vertebral column and limbs.
Ptyonius marshii Cope. Part of skull and anterior vertebræ.
Ptyonius nummifer Cope. Skull and greater part of vertebral column.
Ptyonius pectinatus Cope. Many specimens, some nearly perfect.
Ptyonius serrula Cope. Nearly complete skeleton.
Ptyonius vinchellianus Cope. Skull and anterior vertebræ.
Saurerpeton latithorax Cope. Skull and fore part of body.
Sauropleura digitata Cope. Greater part of body minus skull.
Sauropleura (Anisodexis) enchodus Cope. Part of jaw.
Sauropleura foveata Cope. A single interclavicle with impression.
Sauropleura longidentata Moodie. Incomplete skull with mandible.
Sauropleura newberryi Cope. Two incomplete skulls with vertebræ.
Sauropleura pauciradiata Cope. Elements of a pectoral arch.
Sauropleura scutellata Newberry. Imperfect skeleton.
Stegops divaricata Cope. Nearly complete skull.
Thyrsidium fasciculare Cope. Dorsal vertebræ.
Tuditanus brevirostris Cope. Skull and anterior vertebræ.
Tuditanus longipes Cope. Part of vertebral column with limbs.
Tuditanus punctulatus Cope. Skull and anterior part of body.
Tuditanus walcotti Moodie. Skull and portions of body.

Besides the above-listed species there are others indicated by fragments too poorly preserved to be worthy of specific designation. The Linton Amphibia are all apparently confined exclusively to that locality. Species from the Cannelton slates have been assigned, however, to genera which occur at Linton, i.e., Erpetosaurus and Tuditanus. This reference may be due to lack of knowledge, as the forms are insufficiently known. A single Linton species has been assigned to Ichthyerpeton, a genus known otherwise only from the Coal Measures of Kilkenny, Ireland. Cope referred species from Linton to the genus Ceraterpeton of Huxley, from Kilkenny, Ireland, but Jaekel ([347]) and the writer ([462]) have shown that the species were incorrectly assigned to the genus Ceraterpeton, and that in fact they represent widely distinct genera. A single species has been identified by Eastman from the Des Moines limestone of Iowa as identical with one from Linton, Pleuroptyx clavatus Cope. The Linton fauna is distinct from that of the Mazon Creek beds, and also from that of South Joggins, Nova Scotia.

(o) The deposits in Nova Scotia have been correlated with the Coal Measures strata of the United States (Bell, Summ. Rpt. Geol. Surv. Canada, 1912, 1914, 360-371). They are very near the same age as the Linton beds and come in near the base of the Allegheny River series. The exposures are at the South Joggins, along the sea-coast. Here in strata of clay interstratified with coal are found the erect stumps of the Sigillariæ, and it was in the rock within these stumps that Lyell and Dawson, in 1853, discovered the remains of the amphibians which they termed "reptiles."

"The bones of Dendrerpeton hitherto found, as well as those of the smaller species, have been obtained from the interior of erect Sigillariæ, and all of those in one of the many beds which, at the Joggins, contain such remains. The thick cellular inner bark of the Sigillaria was very perishable; the slender woody axis was somewhat more durable; but near the surface of the stem, there was a layer of elongated cells, or bast tissue of considerable durability, and the outer bark was exceedingly dense and indestructible. Hence an erect tree, partly imbedded in sediment, and subjected to the influence of the weather, became a hollow shell of bark. When they remained open for a considerable time, they would constitute pitfalls into which animals walking on the surface might be precipitated. When the surface was inundated all such remains would be covered and imbedded in the sediment. These seem to have been the precise conditions of the bed which afforded these remains." (Dawson, 223, 1894.)

Fifteen species have been described from the Joggins deposits. Two are known from the Albion mines, south Nova Scotia, where were obtained the remains of Baphetes planiceps Owen and B. minor Dawson.

The following 17 species of Amphibia are known from the Carboniferous of Canada:

Amblyodon problematicum Dawson. Teeth and fragments.
Baphetes minor Dawson. An incomplete mandible.
Baphetes planiceps Owen. An incomplete cranium from Albion.
Dendrerpeton acadianum Owen. A jaw, limb bones, and fragments.
Dendrerpeton oweni Dawson. Phalangeal bone and fragments.
Eosaurus acadianus Marsh. Two dorsal vertebræ.
Fritschia curtidentata Dawson. A mandible, vertebræ, ribs.
Hylerpeton dawsoni Owen. Mandible, teeth and incomplete maxilla.
Hylerpeton intermedium Dawson. Mandible and portions of skull.
Hylerpeton longidentatum Dawson. Fragments of mandible and skull.
Hylonomus latidens Dawson. Mandible and teeth.
Hylonomus lyelli Dawson. Incomplete skeleton and part of skull.
Hylonomus multidens Dawson. Fragments of skull.
Hylonomus wymani Dawson. Mandible and vertebræ.
Platystegos loricatum Dawson. Incomplete skull, vertebræ.
Smilerpeton aciedentatum Dawson. Teeth, ribs, fragments.
Sparodus sp. indet. Teeth, scales.