in chameleons and plethodontids, which allow rapid propulsion of the tongue. A hyoid entoglossal process is also known from Celtedens megacephalus, suggesting that the presence of a ballistic tongue is characteristic for the group. Distinguishing apomorphic traits characteristic of albanerpetontids include a complex mortise and tenon like joint connecting the dentary bones at the front of the jaw, teeth which are non-pedicellate and slightly tricuspid (bearing three cusps), the frontal bones of the skull display raised polygonal sculpturing, and three anterior cervical components form an 'atlas-axis' complex, similar to that of amniotes. Paleobiology The morphology of albanerpetontids suggests that they were sit-and-wait terrestrial predators and fed on invertebrates, similar to living plethodontids. The fact that the skull of the juvenile paratype of Yaksha was around 1/4 of the size of the adult suggests that albanerpetontids grew by direct development and did not have a metamorphic larval stage. It has been suggested that albanerpetontids absorbed oxygen entirely through the skin via cutaneous respiration and lacked lungs like plethodontid salamanders, due to the length of the hyoid entoglossal process. This proposal is supported by the internal vascularisation and lack of Sharpey's fibres in the frontal bones. Distribution The distribution of albanerpetontids is largely confined to Eurasia and North America, with remains also known from Morocco in North Africa. The first albanerpetontids are known from the western Palearctic (Europe and North Africa) in the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian ~168-166 million years ago), with the first known remains from North America occurring in the latter half of the Early Cretaceous. The last known remains of albanerpetontids in North America are from the Paskapoo Formation in Canada, dating to the Paleocene. All other Cenozoic members of the family, belonging to the genus Albanerpeton, are known from Europe and Western Asia, from the Oligocene onwards, after an unexplained hiatus in the Eocene, until their final appearance in Italy during the Early Pleistocene, around 2 million years ago. Classification Albanerpetontids were long thought to be salamanders because of their small size and generalized body plans. However, these features are now thought to be ancestral for lissamphibians and not indicative of close relationships between the two groups. Albanerpetontids share with living lissamphibians an atlanto-occipital joint with two cotyles, a four fingered forelimb (manus), ectochordal (spoon shaped with open centra) vertebrae with cylindrical centra, ribs that do not encircle the body, and a salamander-like quadrate-squamosal articulation, but are distinguished from