The morphology and relationships of the Carboniferous amphibian Eoherpeton watsoni Panchen

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The oldest recorded anthracosaur amphibian Eoherpeton watsoni Panchen, from localities in the Visean and Namurian of the Scottish Carboniferous, is described. It lacks a distinct otic notch, and reconstruction of the position of cranial ligaments and muscles suggest that a tympanum was never developed. On the basis of these observations it is concluded that arguments used to refute a relationship between anthracosaurs and amniotes, based on apparent differences in the morphology of their otic regions, are invalid. The order Anthracosauria is considered to be a monophyletic group characterized by the development of a sutural connection between the tabular and parietal bones on a skull table which includes both the intertemporal and supratemporal as well as the tabular. It is divided into two suborders: Seymouriamorpha characterized by a sutural connection between the squamosal and intertemporal and the presence of a lateral otic tube, and Anthracosauroideae characterized by the absence of post-temporal fossae. The Discosauriscidae, Kotlassiidae and Seymouriidae are included in the Seymouriamorpha, and the Eoherpetontidae, Gephyrostegidae and Embolomeri comprise the Anthracosauroideae. The Proterogyrinidae are considered the most primitive family of embolomeres. A new phylogeny of Amphibia is presented. The old groupings of Labyrinthodontia, Lepospondyli and Lissamphibia are rejected and Amphibia is divided, on the basis of differences in morphology of the neurocranium and its relationship with the surrounding bones of the skull, into two major groups, the first including the Ichthyostcgalia, Temnospondyli, Microsauria and the extant Anura, Apoda and Urodela, while the Aistopoda, Nectridea, Palaeostegalia, Loxommatoidea, Anthracosauria and Diadectomorpha, together with the Amniota, form the second. Similarities in the dentition of the palaeostegalian Crassigyrinus and loxommatoids suggest the two taxa are sister-groups, but the immediate relationships of anthracosaurs remain indeterminate and they here form an unresolved trichotomy with diadectomorphs and amniotes.