Hynerpeton

Name: Hynerpeton (Creeping animal from Hyner).
Phonetic: Hy-ner-pe-ton.
Named By: E. B. Daeschler, N. H. Shubin, K.S. Thomson & W.W. Amaral - 1994.
Classification: Chordata, Amphibia, Ichthyostegalia, Ichthyostegidae.
Species: H. bassetti (type).
Type: Carnivore.
Size: Incomplete remains make it difficult to determine the size, but roughly estimated to be about 70 centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, Pennsylvania, Red Hill.
Time period: Famennian of the Devonian.
Fossil representation: Several bones.

       The fact the remains of Hynerpeton were recovered from the US state of Pennsylvania makes Hynerpeton the first amphibian tetrapod known from the USA, and North America if you don't count the other species recovered from Greenland. The discovery of Hynerpeton in the US has altered the perception of how Tetrapods colonised the land, but the exact ramifications will not be easy to establish without significant further material, either of Hynerpeton, or other early amphibians. What can be established from the sparse fossil material is that Hynerpeton was one of the more primitive amphibians to have a terrestrial as well as aquatic lifestyle.

Further reading
- A Devonian Tetrapod from North America. - Science 265(5172):639-642. - E. B. Daeschler, N. H. Shubin, K.S. Thomson & W.W. Amaral - 1994.

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