Loxomma

Loxomma is an extinct genus of Loxommatinae and one of the first Carboniferous tetrapods. They were first described in 1862 and further described in 1870 when two more craniums were found. It is mostly associated with the area of the United Kingdom. They share features with modern reptiles as well as with fish. They had 4 paddle-like limbs that they used to swim in lakes, but they breathed air. Their diet consisted mostly of live fish. They are of the family Baphetidae which are distinguished by their keyhole shaped orbits, while Loxomma themselves are distinguished by the unique texture on their skulls, said to be honeycomb-like.

Loxomma

FunkMonk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
LoxommatinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 330.3 Mya to 309.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 335.9 Mya to 307.4 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 6 of 6 occurrencesCarboniferous336–335 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences335–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–333 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences333–332 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences332–331 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences331–330 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences330–329 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences329–328 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences328–327 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences320–319 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences319–318 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences318–317 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences317–316 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences316–315 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences315–314 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences314–313 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences313–312 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences312–311 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences311–310 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences309–308 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences308–307 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences330.3 Mya309.8 Mya336.5 Mya306.8 Mya

6 occurrences of Loxomma on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

6 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Gilmerton Ironstone — 55.83°N, 3.13°WLower Coal Measures — 55.74°N, 3.84°WLimestone Coal — 55.88°N, 3.15°WMiddle Coal Measures — 55.87°N, 3.96°WKladno — 49.71°N, 13.21°E

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The named rock units Loxomma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Loxomma and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Loxomma and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

89 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Loxomma, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Loxomma

Credit
FunkMonk
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Loxomma was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itLoxommatinae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Huxley 1862