From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Clepsydrops |
| Type |
Primitive synapsid/pelycosaur |
| Length |
Unknown (at least 1 ft long) |
| Movement |
quadruped |
| Age |
313 million years ago |
| Diet |
carnivore - small insects, perhaps other small reptiles |
| Environment |
forests |
| Distribution |
Nova Scotia, Canada |
Clepsydrops was a primitive amniote that was related to Archaeothyris and the synapsids - the ancestors of mammals. It lived a million or two years (or even thousands) earlier than Archaeothyris. But it was not as old as Protoclepsydrops, a possible primitive synapsid. Protoclepsydrops may have been Clepsydrops 's ancestor, and they probably diverged from each other in the earliest Pennsylvanian time (Late Carboniferous) of Carboniferous Period. Like many other terrestrial, early amniotes, it had the diet of insects and smaller animals, and it laid eggs on land rather than on water, as most of its ancestors did. Its jaws were slightly more advanced than Paleothyris, and Hylonomus. Archaeothyris was probably its descendant or a close relative, and the two may have shared a common ancestor.
