''Iberospondylus'' is an extinct genus of basal

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 ...

which lived in a marine environment. The type material was found in the Emma Quarry Amphibian Bed of the Puertollano Basin,

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...

province, southern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and extended the record for temnospondyls on the peninsula by 45 million years. Along with the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, a skull with several disarticulated vertebrae and ribs, two other partial skeletons are known. The name is derived from "

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

" name of the peninsula where Spain is located, plus "spodylos", Greek for vertebra. The species name is in honor of Dr. Hans-Peter Schultze.

External links

Publication.
* & 2001. "The oldest stegocephalian from the Iberian Peninsula: evidence that temnospondyls were euryhaline" ''Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences - Series III - Sciences de la Vie'' 324(5):495-501 Carboniferous temnospondyls of Europe Prehistoric amphibian genera Fossils of Spain Fossil taxa described in 2001 {{Temnospondyli-stub