''Perittodus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of four-limbed stem-tetrapod from the

Mississippian Mississippian may refer to: * Mississippian (geology), a subperiod of the Carboniferous period in the geologic timescale, roughly 360 to 325 million years ago *Mississippian culture, a culture of Native American mound-builders from 900 to 1500 AD ...

(mid-

Tournaisian The Tournaisian is in the ICS geologic timescale the lowest stage or oldest age of the Mississippian, the oldest subsystem of the Carboniferous. The Tournaisian age lasted from Ma to Ma. It is preceded by the Famennian (the uppermost stag ...

) of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. It contains a single species, ''Perittodus apsconditus'', based on disarticulated skull and postcranial bones from the

Ballagan Formation The Ballagan Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland and England. It preserves fossils dating back to the early part of the Carboniferous period (Tournaisian – early Visean). Its name comes from the "Ballagan Beds" of Ballagan Glen, ne ...

. The lower jaw of the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

specimen was about 6.8 cm (2.7 in.) in length and had a pattern of dentition similar to the Devonian taxon '' Ymeria''. ''Perittodus'' was described in a 2016 study which was devised to fill in the tetrapod and stem-tetrapod faunas of

Romer's gap Romer's gap is an example of an apparent gap in the tetrapod fossil record used in the study of evolutionary biology. Such gaps represent periods from which excavators have not yet found relevant fossils. Romer's gap is named after paleontologist ...

, an interval of the early Carboniferous with few vertebrate fossils. It was one of five new genera named in this study, along with '' Aytonerpeton'', '' Diploradus'', ''

Koilops ''Koilops'' is an extinct genus of four-limbed stem-tetrapod from the Mississippian (mid-Tournaisian) of Scotland. It contains a single species, ''Koilops herma'', based on a mold of an 8.0 cm (3.1 in.)-long skull from the Ballagan Formation. ...

'', and '' Ossirarus''.

References

Carboniferous tetrapods of Europe Stegocephalians Mississippian animals Prehistoric tetrapod genera Fossil taxa described in 2016 Taxa named by Jenny Clack {{Labyrinthodontia-stub