What is Casineria?
{{Taxobox | fossil_range = Middle [[Mississippian]] | name = ''Casineria'' | image = Casineria_kiddi.jpg | image_caption = ''Casineria kiddi'' from the Lower [[Carboniferous]] of [[Scotland]] | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Chordate|Chordata]] | subphylum = [[Vertebrate|Vertebrata]] | Superclassis = [[Tetrapoda]] | classis = [[Amniota]] (uncertain) | ordo = (uncertain) | genus = '''''Casineria''''' | binomial = ''Casineria kiddi'' }} '''''Casineria''''' was a [[tetrapod]] which lived 340 million years ago (mya) in the [[Mississippian]]. It was a small animal, length about 15 centimeters. It lived in what was then a fairly dry [[environment]] in what is now [[Scotland]]. It had a [[mosaic evolution|mosaic]] of '[[basal]]' (= primitive) amphibian and '[[derived]]' (= advanced) [[amniote]] characters. ''Casineria'' was at or very near the origin of the [[amniote]]s. It may have been one of the very first true amniotes. The only [[fossil]] lacks key elements: most of the [[skull]] and the whole lower body is missing. This makes exact analysis difficult.<ref>Monastersky R. (1999): [http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/5_22_99/bob1.htm Out of the Swamps: how early vertebrates established a foothold—with all 10 toes—on land], ''Science News'' '''155''', #21, p328</ref> ''Casineria'' was an [[insectivore]]. This earliest amniote had five fingers with [[claw]]s on each hand, and marks the earliest known clawed foot.<ref name=nature/><ref>Alibardi L. 2008. Microscopic analysis of lizard claw morphogenesis and hypothesis on its evolution. ''Acta Zoologica: Morphology and Evolution'', '''89''' (2): 169–178. [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1463-6395.2007.00312.x/abstract abstract]</ref> Its name, ''Casineria'', is a [[latin]] version of ''Cheese Bay'', the site near [[Edinburgh]], where it was found. ==Discovery== In 1992, an amateur fossil collector spotted the remains of this four-legged creature on the shore of Cheese Bay, Scotland.<ref>{{Cite web|title=CHEESE BAY|url=http://www.jncc.gov.uk/pdf/