296 OUTLINES OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 



The earliest and at the same time the least specialized of the 

 extinct orders were the Anomodontia or Theromorpha, which Dr. 

 Smith Woodward tells us were "directly intermediate in skeletal 



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characters between the highest Labyrinthodonts (Mastodonsaurus 

 and its allies) and the lowest Mammals (Monotremata)." These 

 animals, whose remains have been found only in Permian and 

 Triassic deposits, were terrestrial creatures with limbs modified 

 for walking on dry land, so that they often bore a close general 



