A new capitosauroid temnospondyl from the Middle Triassic upper Fremouw Formation of Antarctica

Peer Review #1 of "Yuanansuchus maopingchangensis sp. nov., the second capitosauroid temnospondyl from the Middle Triassic Badong Formation of Yuanan, Hubei, China (v0.1)"

“…The ratio of postorbital portion to the whole skull is 0.38. This ratio is similar to the ratio in Y. laticeps, bigger than in Mastodonsaurids (~0.3), much bigger than in other capitosaurids (<1/4) (Liu and Wang 2005;Fortunt et al 2011;Schoch and Milner 2000;Sidor et al 2014). The parietal foramen is round and small, with a diameter of 6.5 mm, and lies on the midline near the anteroposterior midpoint of the parietals.…”

“…To assess the phylogenetic position of Yuanansuchus maopingchangensis, I incorporated this taxon into the data matrices of Schoch (2008) and Sidor et al (2014), both of which represent modifications of that of Damiani (2001). The original dataset of Damiani (2001) included 47 characters.…”

A new species of &lt;i&gt;Cyclotosaurus&lt;/i&gt; (Stereospondyli, Capitosauria) from the Late Triassic of Bielefeld, NW Germany, and the intrarelationships of the genus

“…The phylogenetic analysis of Schoch (2008) supported the convergence scenario, and it was further supported by the phylogenetic analyses of Fortuny et al (2011) and Sidor et al (2014), according to which Eocyclotosaurus and Quasicyclotosaurus (on the one hand) and Cyclotosaurus (on the other hand) were not closely related. In contrast, the phylogenetic analysis presented herein supports the monophyly hypothesis with Cyclotosaurus being the sister group of the Heylerosaurinae (Eocyclotosaurus + Quasicyclotosaurus).…”

Gondwana Vertebrate Faunas of India: Their Diversity and Intercontinental Relationships

“…There are several other Endothiodon-bearing horizons in Africa, which are analogous to the Karoo environment and are found in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania (King, 1992). In Zambia, the Lopingian is represented by the Upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation in the Luangwa Basin, from which a single assemblage of 14 dicynodont taxa is known and correlated with the Cistecephalus AZ of South Africa (King, 1992;Angielcyzk et al, 2014;Sidor et al, 2014). The Late Permian tetrapod fossils are preserved in the Ruhuhu and Usili formations of the Ruhuhu Basin of Tanzania, where the tetrapods occur at multiple stratigraphic horizons in each formation (Angielczyk et al, 2014).…”

“…However, Abdala et al (2005) directly correlated subzone C of the Cynognathus AZ of South Africa with the Denwa Formation based on the presence of Paracyclotosaurus, and considered the possible extension of the age to the latest Anisian based on the presence of two mastodonsaurids. Recently, a new capitosaurid temnospondyl, Antarctosuchus, a sister taxon to the Indian form Paracyclotosaurus crookshanki, has been described from the upper Fremouw Formation of Antarctica (Sidor et al, 2014). Based on this fossil fauna, the age of the Denwa Formation is considered as Anisian (Bandyopadhyay and Sengupta, 1999;Sengupta et al, 2016Sengupta et al, , 2017.…”