An order of Carboniferous and early Permian labyrinthodont amphibians (Labyrinthodontia) that includes the ancestors of reptiles. Many of the fossils were found in coal measures and the name means ‘coal lizards’. The anthracosaurs were first defined as large, aquatic amphibians, and later as reptile-like amphibians. They are now defined as reptile-like tetrapods (Tetrapoda), and probably not true amphibians, comprising a paraphyletic order within the superorder Reptilomorpha.