Dissorophoidea


Dissorophoideans are a clade of medium-sized, temnospondyl amphibians that appeared during the Moscovian in Euramerica, and continued through to the Late Permian and the Early Triassic of Gondwana. They are distinguished by various details of the skull, and many forms seem to have been well adapted for life on land. Since 2008, Lissamphibia has been progressively widely considered part of this clade,, but this position is still disputed by some authors.
It is possible that the small Permo-Carboniferous Micromelerpetontidae and the large Late Permian Melosauridae may also belong in this clade.

Phylogeny

An extensive phylogenetic analysis of dissorophoids conducted in 2016 and 2018 found that the families Dissorophidae and Trematopidae are more closely related to each other than either is to the family Amphibamidae. Following a 2008 study, the Dissorophidae-Trematopidae clade was called Olsoniformes. Below is the cladogram from the 2018 analysis: