Amphibian Evolution: The Life of Early Land Vertebrates
By Rainer R. Schoch
Amphibian Evolution: The Life of Early Land Vertebrates PDF focuses on the first vertebrates to conquer land and their long journey to become fully independent from the water. It traces the origin of tetrapod features and tries to explain how and why they transformed into organs that permit life on land. Although the major frame of the topic lies in the past 370 million years and necessarily deals with many fossils, it is far from restricted to paleontology. The aim is to achieve a comprehensive picture of amphibian evolution. It focuses on major questions in current paleobiology: how diverse were the early tetrapods? In which environments did they live, and how did they come to be preserved? What do we know about the soft body of extinct amphibians, and what does that tell us about the evolution of crucial organs during the transition to land? How did early amphibians develop and grow, and which were the major factors of their evolution?
The Topics in Paleobiology Series is published in collaboration with the Palaeontological Association, and is edited by Professor Mike Benton, University of Bristol.
Books in the series provide a summary of the current state of knowledge, a trusted route into the primary literature, and will act as pointers for future directions for research. As well as volumes on individual groups, the series will also deal with topics that have a cross-cutting relevance, such as the evolution of significant ecosystems, particular key times and events in the history of life, climate change, and the application of a new techniques such as molecular palaeontology.
The books are written by leading international experts and will be pitched at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers in both the paleontological and biological sciences.
Rainer Schoch, born 1970 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. He graduated at the University of Tübingen, undertook field work in Argentina and the USA, and worked as a curator and assistant professor at Humboldt University Berlin. Since 2003 he has been the curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Natural History Museum of Stuttgart, Germany.
Table of Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgments x
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Changing paradigms in amphibian evolution 3
1.2 Paleobiology: data, methods, and time scales 5
1.3 Concepts and metaphors: how scientists “figure out” problems 7
1.4 Characters and phylogenies 8
1.5 What’s in a name? 8
References 11
2 The Amphibian World: Now and Then 13
2.1 Tetrapoda 14
2.1.1 The tetrapod skeleton 14
2.1.2 Tetrapod characters 23
2.1.3 Stem-tetrapods (Tetrapodomorpha) 25
2.1.4 Carboniferous tetrapods or tetrapodomorphs? 31
2.2 The amniote stem-group 32
2.2.1 Anthracosauria 33
2.2.2 Seymouriamorpha 37
2.2.3 Chroniosuchia 38
2.2.4 Lepospondyli 40
2.2.4.1 Lepospondyl characters 42
2.2.4.2 Microsauria 42
2.2.4.3 Lysorophia 44
2.2.4.4 Nectridea 44
2.2.4.5 Aïstopoda 45
2.2.4.6 Adelospondyli 46
2.2.4.7 Acherontiscidae 46
2.2.5 Gephyrostegida 46
2.2.6 Amniota 47
2.2.6.1 Stem-amniotes and early crown amniotes 48
2.3 The lissamphibian stem-group (Temnospondyli) 48
2.3.1 Edopoidea 51
2.3.2 Dendrerpeton and Balanerpeton 53
2.3.3 Dvinosauria 54
2.3.4 Dissorophoidea and Zatracheidae 54
2.3.5 Eryopoidea 56
2.3.6 Stereospondyli 57
2.4 Albanerpetontidae 58
2.5 Lissamphibia 59
2.5.1 Lissamphibian characters 61
2.5.2 Batrachia 62
2.5.2.1 Anura (frogs and toads) 62
2.5.2.2 Caudata (salamanders) 67
2.5.2.3 Gymnophiona (caecilians) 68
References 70
3 Amphibian Life Through Time 81
3.1 Aquatic predators prepare for land 83
3.2 Hot springs, scorpions, and little creepers 83
3.3 Life in the tropical coal forest 85
3.4 Neotenes explore unfavorable waters 89
3.5 Lowlands, uplands, and a cave 90
3.6 Hide and protect: extreme life in the hothouse 94
3.7 Predators in deltas, lakes, and brackish swamps 97
3.8 Stereospondyls in refugia, lissamphibians on the rise 97
