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Owenettids and procolophonids from the lower Keuper shed new light on the diversity of parareptiles in the German Middle Triassic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2016

Agustín G. Martinelli ,
Marina Bento Soares  and
Rainer R. Schoch
Agustín G. Martinelli
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Paleontologia de Vertebrados, Departamento de Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Agronomia, 91540-000 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. 〈[email protected]〉, 〈[email protected]〉
Marina Bento Soares
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Paleontologia de Vertebrados, Departamento de Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Agronomia, 91540-000 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. 〈[email protected]〉, 〈[email protected]〉
Rainer R. Schoch
Affiliation:
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Rosenstein 1, D-70191 Stuttgart, Germany. 〈rainer.schoch@smns–bw.de〉
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Abstract

We report three isolated humeri of small-sized parareptiles, which represent two different taxa, from the lower Keuper (Erfurt Formation) of Germany. They constitute the first definitive evidence of parareptiles in the lower Keuper. The specimens represent the first records of an owenettid procolophonian (aff. Barasaurus) from Europe and of a putative gracile-built procolophonid. This indicates the coexistence in the Middle Triassic of Germany of two procolophonian lineages that first appeared in the fossil record in the late Permian and survived the Permian–Triassic extinction. Although based on isolated limb bones, they highlight the taxonomic diversity of the still poorly known tetrapod assemblage of the lower Keuper in southwestern Germany.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 92 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © 2016, The Paleontological Society 

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