No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

ABSTRACT. Material of small sauropsids from the Otter Sandstone Formation of east Devon (Sherwood Sandstone Group; Middle Triassic; Anisian) includes remains that were formerly attributed to a primitive procolophonid. In the light of new specimens, this material is instead found to contain remains of a diapsid and a procolophonine procolophonid. Among these fossils, the medium-sized procolophonine, Kapes bentoni sp. nov., is the ®rst record of this Russian genus in the British Triassic. Coartaredens isaaci gen. et sp. nov. is a small diapsid tentatively assigned to Lepidosauromorpha. The heterodont lower dentition of Coartaredens comprises a row of large, conical posterior teeth and tightly packed, procumbent incisiforms. Two additional specimens are distinguished on the basis of distinctive dentary remains. One of these is of possible procolophonid af®nity, while the dentition of the second resembles that of the aberrant Early Triassic parareptilian genus Sclerosaurus.KEY WORDS: Procolophonia, Procolophonidae, Parareptilia, Lepidosauromorpha, Anisian, Otter Sandstone.H U X L E Y (1869) was the ®rst to report the occurrence of vertebrates in the Triassic of Devon, with the discovery of a rhynchosaur dentary [BGS (GSM) 90494]. Whitaker (1869) recorded that this specimen was collected from a`brecciated horizon' in the lower part of the Otter Sandstone Formation, exposed in the cliff on the east bank of the mouth of the River Otter. At High Peak, a coastal locality about 2 km west of Sidmouth (National Grid Reference SY 104858), Whitaker (1869) distinguished`red sandstone' overlain by`red marl' of the New Red Sandstone, which in turn is overlain by Cretaceous Upper Greensand. From this section, additional ®nds of fossil tetrapods were made during the 1870s and 1880s. Seeley (1876) described a jaw and other bones of the temnospondyl Mastodonsaurus lavisi, and a possible Hyperodapedon ( Rhynchosaurus) tooth plate, while Metcalfe (1884) ®gured remains of Rhynchosaurus, Mastodonsaurus jaws, and other elements. Further remains, including ®sh scales and coprolites, were reported by Carter (1888). Ussher (1876), Metcalfe (1884), Irving (1888Irving ( , 1892Irving ( , 1893, Hull (1892) and Woodward and Ussher (1911) also discussed the stratigraphy and dating of the coastal section near Sidmouth, with particular attention to vertebrate material.After a long collecting hiatus, a large collection of vertebrate material was made by one of us (PSS) during the years 1982±1985, principally from the north-eastern region of the exposure from Ladram Bay towards Sidmouth (Spencer and Isaac 1983), but also from various localities from Danger Point, near the mouth of the River Otter, eastwards to Port Royal, at the mouth of the River Sid. Spencer and Isaac (1983), Benton (1990), Milner et al. (1990, Benton et al. (1993Benton et al. ( , 1994, and Benton and Gower (1997) described much of this new tetrapod and ®sh material, greatly enlarging the faunal list.Procolophonids were initially reported from the Otter Sandstone by Spencer and Isa...