Abstract
Abstract. The early Permian Meisenheim Formation of the Saar–Nahe Basin (Germany) is famous for its richness in vertebrate fossils, among which the temnospondyls were present with microvores and fish-eating apex predators. The latter trophic guild was occupied exclusively by the genus Sclerocephalus in that basin within a long time interval up to M8, whereas in M9, a new taxon, Glanochthon lellbachae, appeared. This taxon is defined by (1) a preorbital region 1.8–2.0 times as long as the postorbital skull table, (2) dermal ornament with tall radial ridges, (3) a prefrontal anteriorly wider with straight lateral margin, (4) a squamosal posteriorly only half as wide as the quadratojugal, (5) phalanges of manus and pes long and gracile, (6) carpals unossified in adults, and (7) tail substantially longer than skull and trunk combined. Phylogenetic analysis finds that G. lellbachae forms the basal sister taxon of the stratigraphically younger G. angusta and G. latirostre and that this clade nests within the paraphyletic taxon Sclerocephalus, with S. nobilis forming the sister taxon of the genus Glanochthon (urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3038F794-17B9-4FCA-B241-CCC3F4423651; registration date: 15 March 2021).
Highlights
The Saar–Nahe Basin ranks among the largest late Paleozoic sedimentary basins in continental Europe and has produced thousands of early Permian tetrapod fossils (Boy et al, 2012; Fig. 1)
The early Permian Meisenheim Formation of the Saar–Nahe Basin (Germany) is famous for its richness in vertebrate fossils, among which the temnospondyls were present with microvores and fish-eating apex predators
In the analysis reported below, S. nobilis and the Glanochthon clade are found to be sister taxa
Summary
The Saar–Nahe Basin ranks among the largest late Paleozoic sedimentary basins in continental Europe and has produced thousands of early Permian tetrapod fossils (Boy et al, 2012; Fig. 1). The only exceptions formed two isolated finds, the still enigmatic Palatinerpeton (Boy, 1996) and a fragmentarily known Onchiodon-like eryopid (Schoch and Hampe, 2004) This changed when private collector Klaus Krätschmer discovered a new site in the Klauswald southwest of Odernheim am Glan (Fig. 1), where large quantities of vertebrates were collected. His work highlighted the variation between and within samples of eryopiform temnospondyls, and one of the new morphs from the Klauswald locality that he envisioned clearly forms a separate taxon from the co-occurring Sclerocephalus nobilis. This new species was first named Cheliderpeton lellbachae by Krätschmer (2006). The objective is to describe and diagnose this taxon, especially in comparison to co-occurring S. nobilis from the same locality and to study its phylogenetic relationships
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