eureptilia

{{Short description|Clade of tetrapods}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|Late Carboniferous|Present|ref={{cite journal|last1=Marjanović|first1=D.|year=2021|title=The Making of Calibration Sausage Exemplified by Recalibrating the Transcriptomic Timetree of Jawed Vertebrates|journal=Frontiers in Genetics|volume=12|at=521693|doi=10.3389/fgene.2021.521693|doi-access=free |pmid=34054911 |pmc=8149952 }}}}

| image = Hylonomus skull.svg

| image_caption = Skull of Hylonomus, a eureptile and one of the oldest known reptiles

| taxon = Eureptilia

| authority = Olson, 1947

| subdivision_ranks = Subgroups

| subdivision = * {{extinct}}Coelostegus

• {{extinct}}Hylonomus
• {{extinct}}Thuringothyris
• {{extinct}}Captorhinidae?
• {{extinct}}"Protorothyrididae"
• Diapsida

}}

Eureptilia ("true reptiles") is one of the two major subgroups of the clade Sauropsida, the other one being Parareptilia. Eureptilia includes Diapsida (the clade containing all modern reptiles and birds), as well as a number of primitive Permo-Carboniferous forms previously classified under Anapsida, in the old (no longer recognised) order "Cotylosauria".{{Cite journal |last1=Simões |first1=T. R. |last2=Kammerer |first2=C. F. |last3=Caldwell |first3=M. W. |last4=Pierce |first4=S. E. |year=2022 |title=Successive climate crises in the deep past drove the early evolution and radiation of reptiles |journal=Science Advances |volume=8 |issue=33 |pages=eabq1898 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abq1898 |pmc=9390993 |pmid=35984885 |doi-access=free}}

Eureptilia is characterized by the skull having greatly reduced supraoccipital, tabular, and supratemporal bones that are no longer in contact with the postorbital. Aside from Diapsida, the group notably contains Captorhinidae, a diverse and long lived (Late Carboniferous-Late Permian) clade of initially small carnivores that later evolved into large herbivores.{{Cite journal |last=Brocklehurst |first=Neil |date=2017-04-13 |title=Rates of morphological evolution in Captorhinidae: an adaptive radiation of Permian herbivores |journal=PeerJ |language=en |volume=5 |pages=e3200 |doi=10.7717/peerj.3200 |issn=2167-8359 |pmc=5392250 |pmid=28417061 |doi-access=free }} Other primitive eureptiles such as the "protorothyrids" were all small, superficially lizard-like forms, that were probably insectivorous.{{Cite journal |last1=Canoville |first1=Aurore |last2=Laurin |first2=Michel |date=2010-05-19 |title=Evolution of humeral microanatomy and lifestyle in amniotes, and some comments on palaeobiological inferences: AMNIOTE MICROANATOMY AND PALAEOBIOLOGICAL INFERENCE |journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |language=en |volume=100 |issue=2 |pages=384–406 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01431.x|doi-access=free }} One primitive eureptile, the Late Carboniferous "protorothyrid" Anthracodromeus, is the oldest known climbing tetrapod.{{Cite journal |last1=Mann |first1=Arjan |last2=Dudgeon |first2=Thomas W. |last3=Henrici |first3=Amy C. |last4=Berman |first4=David S |last5=Pierce |first5=Stephanie E. |date=2021 |title=Digit and Ungual Morphology Suggest Adaptations for Scansoriality in the Late Carboniferous Eureptile Anthracodromeus longipes |journal=Frontiers in Earth Science |volume=9 |page=440 |doi=10.3389/feart.2021.675337 |bibcode=2021FrEaS...9..440M |issn=2296-6463|doi-access=free }} Diapsids were the only eureptilian clade to continue beyond the end of the Permian.

The traditional classification of eureptilians has been challenged in recent studies, with several studies in the early 2020s finding that captorhinids are not even sauropsids, but stem-amniotes.{{Cite journal |last1=Simões |first1=T. R. |last2=Kammerer |first2=C. F. |last3=Caldwell |first3=M. W. |last4=Pierce |first4=S. E. |year=2022 |title=Successive climate crises in the deep past drove the early evolution and radiation of reptiles |journal=Science Advances |volume=8 |issue=33 |pages=eabq1898 |bibcode=2022SciA....8.1898S |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abq1898 |pmc=9390993 |pmid=35984885 |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |last1=Klembara |first1=J. |last2=Ruta |first2=M. |last3=Anderson |first3=J. |last4=Mayer |first4=T. |last5=Hain |first5=M. |last6=Valaška |first6=D. |date=2023 |title=A review of Coelostegus prothales Carroll and Baird, 1972 from the Upper Carboniferous of the Czech Republic and the interrelationships of basal eureptiles |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=18 |issue=9 |pages=e0291687 |bibcode=2023PLoSO..1891687K |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0291687 |pmc=10513281 |pmid=37733816 |doi-access=free}}