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Evaluation of geological age and environmental factors in changing aspects of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna during the Carboniferous

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Robert L. Carroll
Robert L. Carroll
Affiliation:
Biology Department, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H3A 2T5
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Abstract

Of all the localities that have yielded a diversity of Carboniferous tetrapods, the fossil assemblage at East Kirkton most closely resembles that of the Joggins locality in Nova Scotia. Both assemblages are dominated by dendrerpetontid temnospondyls and a smaller number of small anthracosaurs, which are thought to have been primarily terrestrial in habits. Both localities lack adelogyrinids and lysorophids, and such presumably deep water genera as Crassigyrinusand large embolomeres. The East Kirkton Limestone differs in the presence of aïstopods and a possible nectridean, which are associated with a shallow-water environment in other localities. The absence of amniotes and microsaurs may be explained by the later evolution of these groups, their limited geographical distribution, or the lack of any aspects of the depositional environment that would preferentially select primarily terrestrial animals.

Keywords

East KirktonJogginspalaeoecologyevolutionPalaeozoic tetrapodsCar-boniferousScotland
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 84 , Issue 3-4: Volcanism and early terrestrial biotas , 1993 , pp. 427 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1993

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