Since the invasion of land by Antiarch placoderms in the middle Devonian, their lineages had undergone great diversification.
In what on Earth would have been the late Famennian, early bipodiformes split into two clades, the grazing latapods, and the burrowing acripods. After an extinction event on the Rhynia (which seems to have hit around the same time as the Hangenbergian event 359 million years ago, hinting towards a multiple-star-system-spanning cosmic cause for the event, such as a stellar explosion), these two clades underwent speciation among themselves as well.
Thelocauds (feeble tails) are
perhaps one of the most common sights in the lycopsid forests of this
time. Relatively small, with a reduced tail, they were grazers of the
leaves of small vascular plants.
Eusthenopods (strong feet) were
the larger cousins of thelocauds. They unearthed roots and larvae with
their strong limbs, which acted as a subsidy to their diet of shrubby
seed-ferns and bark.
Megapods (massive feet) were the largest bipods of the "Carboniferous", they grazed on high vegetation, and used their long tails as a counterbalence.
Sinoculans (without eyes) are
small burrowing animals which eat roots and soil arthropods. They have
modified their limbs into powerful digging organs, and have completely
lost their eyes, opting instead for sensitive fibrous 'hairs' which they
use to probe their surroundings.
Theloplacs (feeble armour) were
the first arboreal bipods. They facilitated this by evolving their limbs
into strong grasping 'arms', while utilizing their extended fleshy
lower halves to grip tightly around trunks. In practice, their climbing
behaviour looks like a blend between tree-snakes and squirrels, albeit
far slower. They preyed on terrestrial arthropods, though they would not have shied away from the 'spores' of seed-ferns.
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