What is Seymouria?
Q: What is Seymouria?
A: Seymouria was an amphibian tetrapod from the early Permian of North America and Europe, about 280 to 270 million years ago.
Q: How big was it?
A: Seymouria was small, only 2 feet (60 cm) long.
Q: Was it a primitive reptile?
A: It was for quite a long time thought to be a primitive reptile, but it is now known that its early life stages were in water and that it is an amphibian whose adult stage was adapted for life in a dry climate.
Q: Where have fossil larvae been found?
A: Fossil larvae have been found of three related genera, from the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian of five European countries.
Q: What does this mean about seymouriamorphs?
A: This means they were not reptiles; seymouriamorphs had an amphibian-type life history with aquatic young stages that lost their external gills after metamorphosis.
Q: Where were adult skeletons first found?
A: The adult skeletons were first found in the red beds of Texas and Oklahoma which were laid down in the delta complex of a large river flowing towards a coast, much like the Mississippi of today.
Q: What might be Seymouria's simplified life cycle?
A: A simplified life cycle for Seymouria might be eggs laid in water, larval stages in water, young animal with limbs climbs out and instinctively moves to higher ground; all its life lived as a carnivore on dry land returning to water occasionally to drink and to breed.
