Seymouriamorpha were a small but widespread group of limbed vertebrates (tetrapods). They have long been considered stem-amniotes (reptiliomorphs), and most paleontologists still accept this point of view, but some analyses suggest that seymouriamorphs are stem-tetrapods. Many seymouriamorphs were terrestrial or semi-aquatic. However, aquatic larvae bearing external gills and grooves from the lateral line system have been found, making them unquestionably amphibians. Though as they matured, they became more terrestrial and reptile-like. They ranged from 30 cm long lizard-sized creatures to the 1.5 m long Enosuchus. If seymouriamorphs are reptiliomorphs, they were the distant relatives of amniotes. Seymouriamorphs form into three main groups, Kotlassiidae, Discosauriscidae, and Seymouriidae, a group that includes the best known genus, Seymouria. The last seymouriamorph became extinct by the end of the Permian.
Seymouriamorpha
Kotlassia
A tetrapod is any four-limbed vertebrate animal of the superclass Tetrapoda. Tetrapods include all extant and extinct amphibians and amniotes, with the latter in turn evolving into two major clades, the sauropsids and synapsids. Some tetrapods such as snakes, legless lizards, and caecilians have evolved to become limbless via mutations of the Hox gene, although some do still have a pair of vestigial spurs that are remnants of the hindlimbs.
Tetrapod
Eusthenopteron, ≈385 Ma
Tiktaalik, ≈375 Ma
Acanthostega, ≈365 Ma