Lydekkerina
genus of amphibians (fossil)
Lydekkerina is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyl. It is the type genus of the family Lydekkerinidae. Fossils have been collected from Early Triassic deposits in South Africa and Australia. The type species is L. huxleyi, first described in 1889. While most other stereospondyls were semiaquatic, Lydekkerina was exclusively terrestrial.
History and classification
Lydekkerina huxleyi was first briefly described as a species of Bothriceps by Richard Lydekker in 1889. The specific name honors Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist who named the genus Bothriceps in 1859 from material in Australia. Robert Broom, a South African paleontologist, provided a more accurate description of the species in 1915 and reassigned it to the new genus Lydekkerina, named after Lydekker. The type specimen and a paratype specimen were described in much greater detail, particularly the lower jaw, in 2007 by R. Hewison, and a detailed account of its sacral region, pelvic girdle and hind limb.
Lydekkerina is one of the most common temnospondyls found from the Permo-Triassic Karoo Basin of South Africa.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lydekkerina” as genus of amphibians (fossil). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of amphibians (fossil). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20672463. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1859, 1915 and 2007.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lydekkerina” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.