page_title: Temnospondyli
section_title: Carboniferous and Early Permian
hierarchical_section_title: Temnospondyli / Evolutionary history / Carboniferous and Early Permian
caption_attribution_description: Capetus palustris
context_page_description: Temnospondyli is a diverse order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic periods. A few species continued into the Cretaceous. Fossils have been found on every continent. During about 210 million years of evolutionary history, they adapted to a wide range of habitats, including fresh water, terrestrial, and even coastal marine environments. Their life history is well understood, with fossils known from the larval stage, metamorphosis, and maturity. Most temnospondyls were semiaquatic, although some were almost fully terrestrial, returning to the water only to breed. These temnospondyls were some of the first vertebrates fully adapted to life on land. Although temnospondyls are considered amphibians, many had characteristics, such as scales, claws, and armour-like bony plates, that distinguish them from modern amphibians.
  Temnospondyls have been known since the early 19th century, and were initially thought to be reptiles. They were described at various times as batrachians, stegocephalians, and labyrinthodonts, although these names are now rarely used.
context_section_description: Temnospondyls first appeared in the Early Carboniferous around 330 million years ago (Mya). During the Carboniferous, temnospondyls included basal medium-sized forms such as Dendrerpeton or large semiaquatic forms such as Cochleosaurus. Other, more derived temnospondyls, such as the amphibamids, were smaller and more terrestrial. They resembled salamanders, and some taxa, such as the genus Branchiosaurus, even retained external gills like the modern-day axolotl. During the latest Carboniferous and Early Permian around 300 Mya, several groups, such as the dissorophids and trematopids evolved strong, robust limbs and vertebrae and became adapted to life on land while others such as the eryopids, developed into large semiaquatic predators. The dvinosaurs, a group of small aquatic temnospondyls, evolved from terrestrial ancestors in the Late Carboniferous.
caption: Capetus, a basal temnospondyl.
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