Brachydectes

Brachydectes is an extinct genus of lysorophian tetrapods that lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian. It had a very small head and long body, B. elongatus had 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) long skull (averagely 1.4 centimetres (0.55 in)) and pre-sacral length up to 150 centimetres (59 in) (averagely 45 centimetres (18 in)),^[2][3] while B. newberryi, which have proportionally larger skull than B. elongatus, for specimen with 7.6 millimetres (0.30 in) skull roof had estimated total length of 11 centimetres (4.3 in), while the largest skull exceeds 3 centimetres (1.2 in).^[1][3]

Brachydectes Temporal range: Carboniferous
Reconstructed skull of B. newberryi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	†Microsauria
Order:	†Lysorophia
Family:	†Molgophidae
Genus:	†Brachydectes Cope, 1868
Type species
†Brachydectes newberryi Cope, 1868
Synonyms[1]
Genus synonymy †Cocytinus? Cope, 1871 †Lysorophus? Cope, 1877 †Molgophis? Cope, 1868 †Pleuroptyx? Cope, 1875 Species synonymy †Brachydectes elongatus? Wellstead, 1991 †Cocytinus gyrinoides? Cope, 1871 †Lysorophus tricarinatus? Cope, 1877 †Molgophis brevicostatus? Cope, 1875 †Molgophis macrurus? Cope, 1868 †Pleuroptyx clavatus? Cope, 1875