Dissorophus
| Dissorophus Temporal range: Kungurian, | |
|---|---|
| Dissorophus multicinctus skeleton | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Temnospondyli |
| Family: | †Dissorophidae |
| Subfamily: | †Dissorophinae |
| Genus: | †Dissorophus Cope, 1895 |
| Type species | |
| †Dissorophus multicinctus Cope, 1895 | |
Dissorophus (DI-soh-ROH-fus) (meaning "double roof" for two layers of armor) is an extinct genus of temnospondyl amphibian that lived during the Early Permian Period about 273 million years ago. Its fossils have been found in Texas and in Oklahoma in North America. Its heavy armor and robust build indicate Dissorophus was active on land, similar to other members of the clade Dissorophidae that are known from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian periods. Dissorphus is distinguished by its small body size, disproportionately large head and short trunk.
The American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first briefly described Dissorophus in 1895, likely deriving the genus name from Ancient Greek δισσός/dissos "double" and ὀροφή/orophe "roof" to refer to the double layer of armor formed by horizontal "spinous branches" at the top of the neural spines of the vertebrae that "touch each other, forming a carapace" with overlying rows of bony osteoderms that form an armored "dermal layer of transverse bands which correspond to the skeletal carapace beneath," a feature expressed as well in the type species name multicinctus, meaning "many-banded" in Latin. Cope referred to the animal as "a veritable batrachian [amphibian] armadillo."
DeMar mentions Boulenger's interpretation of Dissorophus as “remarkable for an extraordinary exo- and endo-skeletal carapace", reflected in the name Dissorphus multicinctus for its double layered armor.