Oestocephalus is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of aïstopod

Aïstopoda

Aïstopoda is an order of highly specialised snake-like amphibians known from the Carboniferous and Early Permian of Europe and North America, ranging from tiny forms only , to nearly in length...

 lepospondyl

Lepospondyli

Lepospondyli are a group of small but diverse Carboniferous to early Permian tetrapods. Six different groups are known, the Acherontiscidae, Adelospondyli, Aïstopoda, Lysorophia, Microsauria and Nectridea, and between them they include newt-like, eel- or snake-like, and lizard-like forms, along...

 that lived during the Carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...

 period. Fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s have been found from the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 as well as Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 and Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is the type genus

Type genus

In biological classification, a type genus is a representative genus, as with regard to a biological family. The term and concept is used much more often and much more formally in zoology than it is in botany, and the definition is dependent on the nomenclatural Code that applies:* In zoological...

 of 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...

 Oestocephalidae

Oestocephalidae

Oestocephalidae is an extinct family of Late Carboniferous aïstopod lepospondyls. Fossils have been found from Ohio, Illinois, and Colorado in the United States; England; and the Czech Republic. It includes the genera Coloraderpeton and Oestocephalus. Oestocephalids have robust skulls and narrow,...

, although it was previously assigned to the family Ophiderpetontidae, which is now considered paraphyletic. It was first named by Edward Drinker Cope

Edward Drinker Cope

Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...

 in 1868 and now contains two species, O. amphiuminus and O. nanum.

See also

• Prehistoric amphibian
• List of prehistoric amphibians