Dissorophoidea
| Dissorophoidea Temporal range: Late Carboniferous - Early Triassic, Probable descendant taxon Lissamphibia survives to present. | |
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| Skeleton of Cacops aspidephorus (Dissorophidae) in the Field Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Temnospondyli |
| Suborder: | †Euskelia |
| Superfamily: | †Dissorophoidea Bolt, 1969 |
| Subgroups | |
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See text. | |
Dissorophoidea is a clade of medium-sized, temnospondyl amphibians that appeared during the Moscovian in Euramerica, and continued through to the Late Permian and the Early Triassic of Gondwana. They are distinguished by various details of the skull, and many species seem to have been well adapted for life on land.
Dissorophoid diversity was highest in the Permian; some of the more diverse families within the group include Dissorophidae (toad-like amphibians with armored scutes along their backbone), Trematopidae (terrestrial predators with large triangular skulls), and Branchiosauridae (small neotenic amphibians with large external gills). The small Permo-Carboniferous Micromelerpetontidae are another example of neotenic dissorophoids. Many small dissorophoids with short rounded skulls were historically known as "amphibamids"; in 2018, the name Amphibamiformes was erected for a clade equivalent to the broad historical definition of "Amphibamidae".
Since 2008, a consensus of early amphibian researchers consider Lissamphibia (modern amphibians) to be part of this clade. There is a large degree of similarity between lissamphibians (for which the oldest known fossils are Early Triassic) and certain Early Permian amphibamiforms, such as Gerobatrachus and Doleserpeton. A few authors still dispute affinities between dissorophoids and lissamphibians.