Adelospondyl

An Adelospondyl is an extinct type of amphibian that lived in the Carboniferous period, about 330 million years ago.

They had long, slender bodies without limbs, and probably swam like eels or snakes.

Adelospondyls had robust skulls with large eyes and many teeth.

They are considered to be either a group of lepospondyls, which are primitive relatives of modern amphibians, or stem-tetrapods, which are close to the common ancestor of all land vertebrates.

Adelospondyls are very rare fossils, and only six specimens belonging to five genera have been found in Scotland.

The most well-known genus is Adelospondylus, which was about 30 cm long and had a distinctive crest on its head.

Another genus, Acherontiscus, had a different type of vertebrae than other adelospondyls, and may have been more closely related to colosteids, another group of aquatic stem-tetrapods.

Adelospondyls are named after the Greek word for "obscure vertebra", because their vertebrae were not well-ossified and did not fuse with the neural arches, the parts of the vertebrae that protect the spinal cord.

This trait is also seen in some other early tetrapods, and may have been an adaptation for flexibility or buoyancy.

Adelospondyls are an example of the diversity and evolution of early tetrapods, which explored various ecological niches and body forms before the rise of reptiles and mammals.

They are also a source of debate among paleontologists, who disagree on their exact relationships and classification.

Adelospondyl is an extinct order of elongated, presumably aquatic, Carboniferous amphibians.

They are known for having a robust skull roofed with solid bone, and large eyes located towards the front of the skull.

Adelospondyl also lacked limbs, but retained a large part of the bony shoulder girdle.

They were among the oldest "lepospondyls" known from fossils.

The Adelospondyl was a type of ancient amphibian that lived in the Carboniferous period, about 350 to 300 million years ago.
It had a long, eel-like body with no limbs, and a robust skull with large eyes.
It is classified as a member of the order Adelospondyli, which is a group of elongated, aquatic lepospondyls.

The Adelospondyl is known from only a few fossils that were found in Scotland.
The fossils come from the Serpukhovian stage of the Mississippian epoch, which lasted from 330.9 to 323.2 million years ago.
The fossils were discovered in the Ballagan Formation, which is a sedimentary rock unit that was deposited in a coastal delta environment.
The Adelospondyl probably lived in the shallow waters of the delta, where it could feed on small fish and invertebrates.