Editing Reptile (section)

===Rise of the reptiles===
The earliest amniotes, including stem-reptiles (those amniotes closer to modern reptiles than to mammals), were largely overshadowed by larger stem-tetrapods, such as ''[[Cochleosaurus]]'', and remained a small, inconspicuous part of the fauna until the [[Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse]].<ref name="SahneyBentonFalconLang 2010RainforestCollapse">{{cite journal |author=Sahney |first1=S. |last2=Benton |first2=M.J. |last3=Falcon-Lang |first3=H.J. |year=2010 |title=Rainforest collapse triggered Pennsylvanian tetrapod diversification in Euramerica |journal=Geology |volume=38 |issue=12 |pages=1079–1082 |bibcode=2010Geo....38.1079S |doi=10.1130/G31182.1}}</ref> This sudden collapse affected several large groups. Primitive tetrapods were particularly devastated, while stem-reptiles fared better, being ecologically adapted to the drier conditions that followed. Primitive tetrapods, like modern amphibians, need to return to water to lay eggs; in contrast, amniotes, like modern reptiles&nbsp;– whose eggs possess a shell that allows them to be laid on land&nbsp;– were better adapted to the new conditions. Amniotes acquired new niches at a faster rate than before the collapse and at a much faster rate than primitive tetrapods. They acquired new feeding strategies including herbivory and carnivory, previously only having been insectivores and piscivores.<ref name="SahneyBentonFalconLang 2010RainforestCollapse"/> From this point forward, reptiles dominated communities and had a greater diversity than primitive tetrapods, setting the stage for the Mesozoic (known as the Age of Reptiles).<ref name=Sahney-Benton-Ferry-2010>{{cite journal |author1=Sahney, S. |author2=Benton, M.J. |author3=Ferry, P.A. |year=2010 |title=Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land |journal=Biology Letters |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024 |doi-access=free |volume=6 |pages=544–547 |issue=4 |pmid=20106856 |pmc=2936204}}</ref> One of the best known early stem-reptiles is ''[[Mesosaurus]]'', a genus from the [[Cisuralian|Early Permian]] that had returned to water, feeding on fish.

A 2021 examination of reptile diversity in the Carboniferous and the Permian suggests a much higher degree of diversity than previously thought, comparable or even exceeding that of synapsids. Thus, the "First Age of Reptiles" was proposed.<ref name="auto"/>