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''Casineria'' is an extinct genus of tetrapod which lived about 340 million years ago in the Mississippian epoch. Its name, ''Casineria'', is a latinization of ''Cheese Bay'', the site near Edinburgh, where it was found. It lived in what was then a fairly dry environment in Scotland. It is a transitional fossil noted for its mix of primitive (amphibian) and advanced (reptilian) characters, putting it at or very near the origin of the amniotes. The sole find is lacking key elements (most of the skull and the whole lower body is missing), making exact analysis difficult.〔Monastersky, R. (1999): (Out of the Swamps, How early vertebrates established a foothold—with all 10 toes—on land ), ''Science News'' vol. 155, No. 21, p. 328〕 ==Description== ''Casineria'' was a small animal with a total length estimated to have been 15 centimeters. Its small size would have made it ideal for hunting the invertebrates of the carboniferous.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/c/casineria.html )〕 This earliest amniote had five fingers with claws on each hand, and marks the earliest clawed foot.〔 Claws being a feature intimately bound to the formation of keratinous scales in reptiles, ''Casineria'' would in life in all likelihood bear scaly, reptilian type skin.〔Alibardi, L. (2008): Microscopic analysis of lizard claw morphogenesis and hypothesis on its evolution. ''Acta Zoologica: Morphology and Evolution'', vol 89 (2): pp 169–178. (abstract )〕 In life, it would resemble a small lizard. Likely being among the first amniotes in the biological sense, it would have laid amniotic egg not dependent on being laid in water to survive, possibly hiding them in damp vegetation or hollowed out tree stumps. This has been inferred from the fact that ''Casineria'' was found in rocks showing a rather dry environment.〔 In the early Carboniferous period before the appearance of ''Casineria'', vertebrates were primarily aquatic, only spending part of their time on land. ''Casineria'' and its relatives were the first vertebrates to live and reproduce on land. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Casineria」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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