Thinopus
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Thinopus is the name given to a trace fossil (ichnotaxon) found in late Devonian rocks in Pennsylvania. The only specimen was described by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in a brief note published in 18961, with the only ichnospecies Thinopus antiquus. Marsh interpreted it as the fossil footprints of an early amphibian, making it the oldest evidence for tetrapods (land vertebrates) known at the time. Later research, however, argued that the fossil is better interpreted as the impressions of coprolites (fossilized feces) of fish. This would make Thinopus the earliest published name of a fish coprolite.
Thinopus is the name given to a trace fossil (ichnotaxon) found in late Devonian rocks in Pennsylvania. The only specimen was described by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in a brief note published in 1896, with the only ichnospecies Thinopus antiquus. Marsh interpreted it as the fossil footprints of an early amphibian, making it the oldest evidence for tetrapods (land vertebrates) known at the time. Later research, however, argued that the fossil is better interpreted as the impressions of coprolites (fossilized feces) of fish. This would make Thinopus the earliest published name of a fish coprolite.
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