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Procolophon

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Procolophon
Temporal range: Early Triassic
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Procolophon pricei from the Early Triassic of South Africa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: †Parareptilia
Order: †Procolophonomorpha
Family: †Procolophonidae
Subfamily: †Procolophoninae
Genus: †Procolophon
Owen 1876
Type species
Procolophon trigoniceps
Owen 1876
Species
  • P. trigoniceps Owen 1876 (type)
Synonyms[1]
  • Procolophon minor Owen, 1876
  • Procolophon griersoni Seeley, 1878
  • Procolophon cuneiceps Seeley, 1878
  • Procolophon laticeps Seeley, 1878
  • Procolophon platyrhinus Seeley, 1905
  • Procolophon sphenorhinus Seeley, 1905
  • Procolophon baini Broom, 1905
  • Procolophonoides baini Ivachnenko, 1979
  • Procolophon pricei Lavina, 1983
  • Procolophon brasiliensis Cisneros & Schultz, 2002

Procolophon (from Greek: πρό pró, 'before' and Greek: κολοφών kolophṓn, 'summit')[2] is a genus of lizard-like procolophonid parareptiles that first appeared in the Early Triassic (Induan) of South Africa, Brazil, and Antarctica. It persisted through the Permian–Triassic extinction event, but went extinct in the beginning of the Early Middle Triassic. The type species is P. trigoniceps.[3]

History of discovery

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The first Procolophon fossil was discovered in the 1870s in Donnybrook, an area southwest of Pietermaritzburg in present-day Kwa-Zulu Natal of South Africa. The fossil was accessioned to Harry Seeley, who described the fossil in 1878.[4] Numerous other fossils have been recovered since from localities across the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces of South Africa.[5][6][7][8]

Description

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Fossil

Procolophon reached a length up to 30 centimetres (12 in), and is considered to have been a small herbivore or insectivore. The skull of Procolophon is distinct because of its latero-posteriorly facing paired cheek spikes, along with spiked dermal ossicles. Paleontologists debate the function of the cheek spikes. Some paleontologists posit that the bony protrusions were points for muscle attachments. Procolophon also had large eyes, and may have had acute night vision. Its teeth were peg-like and suitable for crushing plant matter. The front of the skull was short and blunt with the nasal opening very close to the mouth.[9][10]

Classification

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Procolophon is a basal member of Procolophonidae, a clade of parareptiles that are closely related to larger, more derived parareptiles such as the pareiasaur, Bradysaurus. Procolophonids are also related to mesosaurids and millerettids. Procolophon was considered to share a sister-taxon relationship with Tichvinskia, a procolophonid from the lower Triassic of Russia.[11]

The cladogram below follows a phylogenetic analysis by Modesto and Damiani (2007) in which Procolophon is defined in polytomy with Thelerpeton and Leptopleuroninae:[12]

Procolophonoidea

In their phylogenetic analyses, Butler et al. (2023) defined Procolophon as a sister taxon to Teratophon and Thelerpeton or only to Teratophon within Procolophoninae. The results are shown in two cladograms below:[13]

Correlation

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Procolophon occupied a wide geographic range. Fossils of the genus were found in the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of the Katberg and Normandien Formations of South Africa, to the Sanga do Cabral Formation of the Paraná Basin in eastern Brazil,[14][15][16] to the Fremouw Formation of the Transantarctic Mountains.[17] Numerous subspecies and sister taxa are also found in the lower Triassic (Induan) of Germany, North America, and Russia.[18][19]

References

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  1. ^ Juan Carlos Cisneros (2008). "Taxonomic status of the reptile genus Procolophon from the Gondwanan Triassic". Palaeontologia Africana. 43: 15. ISSN 0078-8554. Archived from the original on 2024-02-14.
  2. ^ Colbert, Edwin H. (Edwin Harris); Knight, Charles Robert (1951). The dinosaur book: the ruling reptiles and their relatives. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 153.
  3. ^ Kemp, T. S. (1974). "The braincase and associated structures of the cotylosaur reptile Procolophon trigoniceps Owen". Annals of the South African Museum. 64: 11–26.
  4. ^ Seeley, H. G. (1 January 1878). "On new Species of Procolophon from the Cape Colony preserved in Dr. Grierson's Museum, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire; with some Remarks on the Affinities of the Genus". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 34 (1–4): 797–807. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1878.034.01-04.51. S2CID 128830316.
  5. ^ GOW, CE (1977). "Tooth function and succession in the Triassic reptile Procolophon trigoniceps". Palaeontology. 20 (3): 695–704. INIST PASCALGEODEBRGM7820073449.
  6. ^ Carroll, Robert L.; Lindsay, William (1 November 1985). "Cranial anatomy of the primitive reptile Procolophon". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 22 (11): 1571–1587. Bibcode:1985CaJES..22.1571C. doi:10.1139/e85-166.
  7. ^ Groenewald, G.H. (24 September 1991). "Burrow casts from the Lystrosaurus-Procolophon Assemblage-zone, Karoo Sequence, South Africa". Koedoe. 34 (1): 13–22. doi:10.4102/koedoe.v34i1.409.
  8. ^ Cisneros, Juan Carlos (June 2008). "New basal procolophonid reptile from the Katberg formation (Lower Triassic) of the South African Karoo". Palaeoworld. 17 (2): 126–134. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2008.06.003.
  9. ^ deBraga, Michael (1 April 2003). "The postcranial skeleton, phylogenetic position, and probable lifestyle of the Early Triassic reptile Procolophon trigoniceps". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 40 (4): 527–556. Bibcode:2003CaJES..40..527D. doi:10.1139/e02-082.
  10. ^ Cisneros, Juan Carlos; Ruta, Marcello (3 November 2010). "Morphological diversity and biogeography of procolophonids (Amniota: Parareptilia)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 8 (4): 607–625. Bibcode:2010JSPal...8..607C. doi:10.1080/14772019.2010.491986. S2CID 84496551.
  11. ^ Ivakhnenko, M. F. (1973). "Skull structure in the Early Triassic procolophonian Tichvinskia vjatkensis". Paleontological Journal. 7: 511–518.
  12. ^ Sean Patrick Modesto, Ross Damiani (2007). "The procolophonoid reptile Sauropareion anoplus from the lowermost Triassic of South Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (2): 346–347. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[337:TPRSAF]2.0.CO;2.
  13. ^ Butler, R. J.; Meade, L. E.; Cleary, T. J.; McWhirter, K. T.; Brown, E. E.; Kemp, T. S.; Benito, J.; Fraser, N. C. (2023). "Hwiccewyrm trispiculum gen. et sp. nov., a new leptopleuronine procolophonid from the Late Triassic of southwest England". The Anatomical Record. doi:10.1002/ar.25316. PMID 37735997.
  14. ^ Dias-da-Silva, Sérgio; Modesto, Sean Patrick; Schultz, Cesar Leandro (1 November 2006). "New material of Procolophon (Parareptilia: Procolophonoidea) from the Lower Triassic of Brazil, with remarks on the ages of the Sanga do Cabral and Buena Vista formations of South America". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 43 (11): 1685–1693. Bibcode:2006CaJES..43.1685D. doi:10.1139/e06-043.
  15. ^ Cisneros, Juan Carlos; Schultz, Cesar Leandro (15 November 2002). "Procolophon brasiliensis n. sp., a new procolophonid reptile from the Lower Triassic of southern Brazil". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte. 2002 (11): 641–648. doi:10.1127/njgpm/2002/2002/641.
  16. ^ Schoch, Rainer R. (1 February 2011). "A procolophonid-like tetrapod from the German Middle Triassic". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 259 (2): 251–255. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2011/0124.
  17. ^ Kitching, J. W.; Collinson, J. W.; Elliot, D. H.; Colbert, E. H. (4 February 1972). "Lystrosaurus Zone (Triassic) Fauna from Antarctica". Science. 175 (4021): 524–527. Bibcode:1972Sci...175..524K. doi:10.1126/science.175.4021.524. PMID 17755654. S2CID 40597467.
  18. ^ Säilä, Laura K. (12 December 2008). "The osteology and affinities of Anomoiodon liliensterni, a procolophonid reptile from the Lower Triassic Bundsandstein of Germany". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28 (4): 1199–1205. Bibcode:2008JVPal..28.1199S. doi:10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.1199. S2CID 14428420.
  19. ^ Sues, Hans-Dieter; Olsen, Paul E.; Scott, Diane M.; Spencer, Patrick S. (27 June 2000). "Cranial osteology of Hypsognathus fenneri, a latest Triassic procolophonid reptile from the Newark Supergroup of eastern North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 20 (2): 275–284. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0275:COOHFA]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 17669446.
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