Article: On the identity of the amphibian Hesperoherpeton garnettense from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Kansas

Hesperoherpeton garnettense Peabody was first described as an embolomerous anthracosaurian amphibian, based on a small scapulocoracoid and associated neural arch from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Garnett, Kansas. Subsequently, on the basis of a referred specimen from the type locality, Hesperoherpeton was claimed by Eaton and Stewart to be the most anatomically primitive tetrapod despite its Upper Pennsylvanian age. Re-examination of the type and the referred specimen leads to the conclusion that the former is indeterminate and the latter is a poorly preserved small specimen of a temnospondyl amphibian of the family Trematopidae. It may be a specimen of the trematopid Actiobates peabodyi Eaton from the same locality. The binomen H. garnettense is a notnen dubium restricted to the type specimen, and Eaton and Stewart's Order Plesiopoda is invalid.