A non-mammaliaform cynodont from the Upper Triassic of South Africa: a therapsid Lazarus taxon?

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dc.contributor.authorAbdala, Fernando
dc.contributor.authorDamiani, Ross
dc.contributor.authorYates, Adam
dc.contributor.authorNeveling, Johann
dc.date.accessioned2014-12-22T08:00:26Z
dc.date.available2014-12-22T08:00:26Z
dc.date.issued2007
dc.description.abstractThe tetrapod record of the ‘Stormberg Group’, including the Lower Elliot Formation, in the South African Karoo is widely dominated by archosaurian reptiles, contrasting with the therapsid dominion of the subjacent Beaufort Group. The only therapsids represented by skeletal remains in the Upper Triassic Lower Elliot Formation are the large traversodontid cynodont Scalenodontoides macrodontes and the recently described tritheledontid cynodont Elliotherium kersteni. Here we present a fragmentary lower jaw that provides evidence of a third type of cynodont for the Upper Triassic of South Africa. The fossil is tentatively assigned to the Diademodontidae. The latter representative of this family is known from the Late Anisian, and its tentative record in the Norian Lower Elliot Formation, if confirmed, will represent a case of Lazarus taxon. Thus, Diademodontidae apparently disappeared from the fossil record by the end of the Anisian and then reappeared in the Norian of South Africa, a stratigraphic interval of some 21 million years. This new cynodont record, together with the recently described Tritheledontidae, show that cynodonts are now the second most diverse tetrapod group in the Lower Elliot fauna.en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipThe University of the Witwatersrand, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, the Royal Society of London and PAST.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn0078-8554
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/16099
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherBERNARD PRICE INSTITUTE FOR PALAEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCHen_ZA
dc.titleA non-mammaliaform cynodont from the Upper Triassic of South Africa: a therapsid Lazarus taxon?en_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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Volume 42 May 2007