Cochleosaurus
| Cochleosaurus Temporal range: Moscovian ~ | |
|---|---|
| Skull in Vienna | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Temnospondyli |
| Family: | †Cochleosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Cochleosaurinae |
| Genus: | †Cochleosaurus Fritsch 1885 |
| Species | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Cochleosaurus (“spoon lizard”, from the Latin cochlear "spoon" and Greek sauros “lizard”) were medium-sized edopoid temnospondyls that lived in Euramerica during the Moscovian age. Two species, C. bohemicus and C. florensis, have been identified from the fossil record.
Both species lived in equatorial saltwater marshes with highly variable water depth. The majority of Cochleosaurus remains have been discovered in fossil assemblages in the Late Carboniferous Sydney Coalfield in Nova Scotia and the Kladno Formation in the Czech Republic.