''Wesserpeton'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

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 ...

of albanerpetontid

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 ...

known from the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Description

''Wesserpeton'' is known from 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 ...

NHMUK PV R36521, nearly complete fused frontals and from the referred materials NHMUK PV R36522–36568 and R36595–36611. All specimens were collected from seven localities of the

Wessex Formation The Wessex Formation is a fossil-rich England, English geological formation that dates from the Berriasian to Barremian Stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Early Cretaceous. It forms part of the Wealden Group and underlies the younger Vectis Form ...

on the southeastern coast of the

of southern England. The type locality (Bed 38) is exposed at

Yaverland Yaverland is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sandown, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is just north of Sandown on Sandown Bay. It has about 200 houses. About of a mile away from the village is the Yaverland Manor an ...

while the rest (Bed L2) are exposed high in the cliff at Sudmoor Point but have yielded only NHMUK PV R36539, R36522 and R36553–36558. All specimens are dating to the

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 125.77 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma (Historically, this stage was placed at 129.4 million to approximately 125 million years ago) It is a ...

stage of the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

Etymology

''Wesserpeton'' was first named by Steven C. Sweetman and James D. Gardner in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is ''Wesserpeton evansae''. The generic name is derived from ''Wess'', from

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

, an ancient British kingdom which included the

, and ἑρπετόν, ''erpeton'',

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

for "creeping animal" which used in the construction of the name of ''

Albanerpeton ''Albanerpeton'' is an extinct genus of salamander-like Albanerpetontidae, albanerpetontid amphibian found in North America, Europe and Asia first appearing in Cretaceous-aged strata. There are eight described members of the genus, and one undiag ...

''. The specific name honors Professor

Susan E. Evans Susan Elizabeth Evans is a British palaeontologist and herpetologist. She is the author or co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She received a BSc in Zoology at Bedford College (London), Bedford College in 1974, and i ...

from the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

for contributing the research of microvertebrate palaeontology and the understanding of

Albanerpetontidae The Albanerpetontidae (also spelled Albanerpetidae and Albanerpetonidae) are an extinct family of small amphibians, native to the Northern Hemisphere during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The only members of the order Allocaudata, they are thought to ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13409564 Albanerpetontidae Prehistoric amphibian genera Barremian life Cretaceous amphibians of Europe Cretaceous England Fossils of England Fossil taxa described in 2012