''Edops'' ('swollen face') is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') or temnospondyls is a diverse ancient order (biology), order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered Labyrinth ...

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

from the Late

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

- Early

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

periods. Unlike more advanced temnospondyls of the time, such as ''

Eryops ''Eryops'' (; from Greek , , 'drawn-out' + , , 'face', because most of its skull was in front of its eyes) is a genus of extinct, amphibious temnospondyls. It contains the single species , the fossils of which are found mainly in early Permian (a ...

'', ''Edops'' exhibited an archaic pattern of palatal bones, and still possessed various additional bones at the back of the skull. Edopoids also had particularly big premaxillae (the bones that form the tip of the snout) and proportionally small external nostrils. Within the clade, the most basal member seems to be ''Edops'' from the Early Permian

Archer City Formation The Archer City Formation is a Formation (geology), geological formation in north-central Texas, preserving fossils from the Asselian and early Sakmarian Stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Permian Period (geologic time), period. It is the earlie ...

of the US, a broad-skulled animal with large palatal teeth. ''Edops'' was fairly big, at in length. Fragmentary remains from the Viséan of Scotland appear to come from ''Edops'' or a close relative and hence predate the type ''Edops'' material of the Permian.

Discovery and naming

The American paleontologist

Alfred Sherwood Romer Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution. Biography Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...

named ''Edops'' "swollen face" (from Greek ''oidos'' "swelling" and Greek ''ops'' "face") in 1936, noting that the "premaxillaries are greatly thickened and produced externally into rounded swellings (whence the generic name)." (The Latinized spelling "''edo''" for "''oidos''" resembles the Latin word ''edo'' meaning a glutton, but this is not the formal etymology.) In a 1943 popular article, Romer explained that the original fossil find was nicknamed "Grandpa Bumps" for the lumps of bone, which had survived while the rest of the first skull had been largely destroyed. Romer and his preparator R. V. Witter from Harvard University described ''Edops'' in more detail from additional fossil material in 1942.

Phylogeny

''Edops craigi'' in a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

after Steyer ''et. al''., 2006:

Discovery and naming

Phylogeny

References

Further reading