Whatcheeriidae

Whatcheeriidae Temporal range: Early Carboniferous
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Pederpes finneyi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Tetrapodomorpha
Clade:	Stegocephalia
Family:	†Whatcheeriidae Clack, 2002
Genera
?Ossinodus Pederpes Whatcheeria

Whatcheeriidae is an extinct family of 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. 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.

Classification

Currently, using modern cladistic taxonomy, Whatcheeriidae is not placed in Amphibia or any other class but simply as its own family within stem-group tetrapods. The analysis below was conducted by Swartz in 2012, showing the relationship of whatcheeriids with other stem-tetrapods.

Elpistostegalia	Panderichthys Stegocephalia Tiktaalik Elpistostege Elginerpeton Ventastega Acanthostega Ichthyostega Whatcheeriidae Colosteidae Crassigyrinus Baphetidae Crown group Tetrapoda

References

• Taxonomicon article on Whatcheeriidae
• Zipcode Zoo article on Whatcheeriidae