Ossinodus

Ossinodus Temporal range: Early Carboniferous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Superclass:	Tetrapoda
Family:	?Whatcheeriidae
Genus:	Ossinodus Warren and Turner, 2004
Species
O. pueri Warren and Turner, 2004 (type)

Restoration showing placement of a fractured right radius

Ossinodus is an extinct genus of stem tetrapod. Fossils have been found from the Ducabrook Formation in Queensland, Australia dating back to the middle Visean stage of the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian).^[1] It was originally placed within the family Whatcheeriidae, but the absence of an intertemporal bone as suggested by a recent reconstruction of the skull based on fragmentary material may prove it to be stemward of all whatcheeriids.^[2]

The oldest known pathological bone of a tetrapod, a fractured right radius, has been referred to Ossinodus.^[3]

References

1. Warren, A., and Turner, S. (2004). The first stem tetrapod from the Lower Carboniferous of Gondwana. Palaeontology 47(1):151-184.
2. Warren, A. (2007). New data on Ossinodus pueri, a stem tetrapod from the Early Carboniferous of Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(4):850-862.
3. Bishop, Peter J.; Walmsley, Christopher W.; Phillips, Matthew J.; Quayle, Michelle R.; Boisvert, Catherine A.; McHenry, Colin R. (2015). "Oldest Pathology in a Tetrapod Bone Illuminates the Origin of Terrestrial Vertebrates". PLoS ONE. 10 (5): e0125723. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125723.