Australerpeton is an extinct genus of archegosauroidea

Archegosauroidea

Archegosauroidea is an extinct superfamily of Permian temnospondyls. The superfamily is assigned to the clade Stereospondylomorpha and is the sister taxon to the suborder Stereospondyli. It includes the families Actinodontidae and Archegosauridae, and possibly the genus Intasuchus, which is placed...

n stereospondylomorph

Stereospondylomorpha

Stereospondylomorpha is a clade of temnospondyl amphibians. It includes the superfamily Archegosauroidea and the more diverse group Stereospondyli....

 temnospondyl within the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Archegosauridae

Archegosauridae

Archegosauridae is a family of relatively large and long snouted temnospondyls that lived in the Permian period. Most appeared and probably behaved like crocodiles.-References:...

. When first named in 1998, the genus was placed within the new family Australerpetontidae. However, later studies questioned the systematics used in the original description and included the genus within Archegosauridae. A more recent study reassigned Australerpeton to the family Rhinesuchidae

Rhinesuchidae

Rhinesuchidae is a family of Temnospondyli that lived in the Permian and Triassic period.-External links:*...

 within the suborder Stereospondyli

Stereospondyli

The Stereospondyli are a group of extinct temnospondyl amphibians. Relative to other early tetrapods , they had simplified backbones, where the whole vertebra was made of a single intercentrum, topped by a neural arch. The whole vertebral structure was rather weak, meaning that most stereospondyls...

 based on an earlier evaluation of the family. In the study, the close similarities between Australerpeton and archegosaurids were attributed to convergent evolution

Convergent evolution

Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action. Although their last common ancestor did not have wings, both birds and bats do, and are capable of powered flight. The wings are...

as a result of similar semi-aquatic lifestyles.