Nannaroter

Nannaroter Temporal range: Early Permian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Subclass:	Lepospondyli
Order:	Microsauria
Suborder:	Tuditanomorpha
Family:	Ostodolepidae
Genus:	Nannaroter Anderson et al., 2009
Species
N. mckinziei Anderson et al., 2009 (type)

Nannaroter is an extinct genus of tuditanomorph microsaur within the family Ostodolepidae. It is known from only the holotype specimen, which was found in the Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry in Oklahoma. The holotype, a well preserved skull, was found in Early Permian-aged fissure fill deposits in Ordovician limestone.^[1]

Nannaroter is the smallest known ostodolepid. Like other ostodolepids, it has a wedge-shaped skull, a pointed snout, and a temporal emargination. The skull is highly ossified in order to resist anteroposteriorly directed forces. There is a large triangular pterygoid-epipterygoid complex that reinforces the posterolateral wall of the braincase. The walls of the orbits, or eye sockets, are thickened. The high degree of ossification in the skull of Nannaroter is seen as an adaptation to a fossorial, or burrowing, lifestyle.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Anderson, J.S.; Scott, D.; and Reisz, R.R. (2009). "Nannaroter mckinziei, a new ostodolepid ‘microsaur’ (Tetrapoda, Lepospondyli, Recumbirostra) from the Early Permian of Richards Spur (Ft. Sill), Oklahoma". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29 (2): 379–388. doi:10.1671/039.029.0222. 

Paleontology portal