First African record of micromelerpetid amphibians (Temnospondyli, Dissorophoidea)

Werneburg, Ralf; Schneider, Joerg W.; Voigt, Sebastian; Belahmira, Abouchouaib

doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2019.103573

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This taxon's temporal and geographic isolation, together with phylogenetic analyses that recover M. stowi as an early diverging amphibamiform, have led previous workers to interpret M. stowi as a relic taxon. The marked spatiotemporal separation from other dissorophoid occurrences suggests a largely unrecorded history of global dispersal and southern Pangean biodiversity that remains to be discovered through collection efforts outside of classic localities and regions in western Europe and North America (Werneburg et al, 2019). The persistence of amphibamiforms into the Triassic of South Africa and perhaps Siberia also suggests that the high paleolatitudes may have provided some modicum of a refugium for temnospondyls across the Permo-Triassic extinction, as originally proposed by Yates and Warren (2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…In addition to its unique temporal occurrence, Micropholis stowi is also notable for its geographic occurrence. The only other dissorophoid records from southern Pangea are an indeterminate middle Permian branchiosaurid from Turkey, the paleolatitude of which remains tenuous (Fortuny et al, 2015), and the micromelerpetid Branchierpeton saberi from the late Carboniferous of Morocco (Werneburg et al, 2019). Micropholis stowi is known from several widely separated localities within the Karoo Basin (Schoch and Rubidge, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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First record of the amphibamiform Micropholis stowi from the lower Fremouw Formation (Lower Triassic) of Antarctica

Gee

Sidor

2021

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

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The fossil record of temnospondyl amphibians in the immediate wake of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction captures extensive taxic and ecological diversity, with most records known from high paleolatitudinal settings. In southern Pangea, the most substantial records come from South Africa and Australia, with a total of over 20 taxa presently recognized. Temnospondyls have also been known from correlated horizons in the lower Fremouw Formation of Antarctica since the late 1960s, but these records are mostly fragmentary, thereby limiting taxonomic resolution to the family level and subsequent biostratigraphic correlations and comparisons between high-latitude basins. Here we report substantial new material of the amphibamiform Micropholis stowi, a relic dissorophoid previously known only from the Katberg Formation (Lystrosaurus declivis Assemblage Zone) of South Africa, from the lower Fremouw Formation. The exceptional preservation of the recently recovered material permits not only confident taxonomic referral but also tentative association of several individuals to the broad-headed morph of the taxon. The recognition of M. stowi in Antarctica represents only the fourth geographic occurrence of a dissorophoid from southern Pangea and supports the hypothesis that high-latitude environments served as refugia for temnospondyls during the mass extinction. In the case of M. stowi, such refugia permitted the persistence of a predominantly Permo-Carboniferous clade, and the Antarctic records discussed here further hint at a poorly sampled cryptic distribution, both of amphibamiforms in southern Pangea and of small-bodied temnospondyls in early Mesozoic deposits.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%