Pederpes Temporal range: Tournasian, Early Carboniferous
| |
---|---|
Illustration of the holotype fossil slab | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Sarcopterygii |
Clade: | Tetrapodomorpha |
Clade: | Stegocephali |
Family: | †Whatcheeriidae |
Genus: | †Pederpes Clack, 2002 |
Species: | †P. finneyae
|
Binomial name | |
†Pederpes finneyae Clack, 2002
|
Pederpes ("Peter's Foot") is an extinct genus of early Carboniferous stegocephalian, dating from 348 to 347.6 Ma in the Tournaisian age (lower Mississippian). Pederpes contains one species, P. finneyae, 1 m long.
This most basal Carboniferous stegocephalian had a large, somewhat triangular head, similar to that of later American sister-genus Whatcheeria, from which it is distinguished by various skeletal features, such as a spike-like latissimus dorsi (an arm muscle) attachment on the humerus and several minor skull features. The feet had characteristics that distinguished it from the paddle-like feet of the Devonian Ichthyostegalia and resembled the feet of later, more terrestrially adapted Carboniferous forms. Pederpes is the earliest-known tetrapod to show the beginnings of terrestrial locomotion and despite the probable presence of a sixth digit on the forelimbs it was at least functionally pentadactyl.