Whatcheeriidae
Extinct family of tetrapodomorphs
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Whatcheeriidae is an extinct family of stem-tetrapods which lived in the Mississippian sub-period, a subdivision of the Carboniferous period. It contains the genera Pederpes, Whatcheeria, and possibly Ossinodus. Fossils of a possible whatcheeriid have been found from the Red Hill locality of Pennsylvania. If these remains are from a whatcheeriid, they extend the range of the family into the Late Devonian and suggest that advanced tetrapods may have lived alongside primitive tetrapod ancestors like Hynerpeton and Densignathus.[1] They also imply that a very long ghost lineage of whatcheeriids lived through Romer's gap, a period during the Early Carboniferous conspicuously lacking in tetrapod remains.[2]
| Whatcheeriidae Temporal range: Early Carboniferous | |
|---|---|
| |
| Pederpes finneyae | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Stegocephali |
| Family: | †Whatcheeriidae Clack, 2002 |
| Type genus | |
| †Whatcheeria Lombard and Bolt, 1995 | |
| Genera | |
