Thelerpeton is an extinct genus of procolophonine procolophonid parareptile from middle Triassic (early Anisian stage) deposits of Free State Province, South Africa. It is known from the holotype BP/1/4538, a nearly complete skull. It was collected by the South African palaeontologist, James W. Kitching from Hugoskop in the Rouxville District and referred to subzone B of the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Burgersdorp Formation, Beaufort Group (Karoo Basin). It was first named by Sean P. Modesto and Ross J. Damiani in 2003 and the type species is Thelerpeton oppressus. It was first assigned to a species of Thelegnathus (now considered to be a nomen dubium), Thelegnathus oppressus.[1][2]
Thelerpeton Temporal range: Middle Triassic,
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | †Parareptilia |
Order: | †Procolophonomorpha |
Family: | †Procolophonidae |
Subfamily: | †Procolophoninae |
Genus: | †Thelerpeton Modesto & Damiani, 2003 |
Type species | |
†Thelerpeton oppressus (Gow, 1977 [originally Thelegnathus oppressus])
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Phylogeny
editIn their phylogenetic analyses, Butler et al. (2023) defined Thelerpeton as a sister taxon to Teratophon and Procolophon or as a sister taxon to clade consisting of Teratophon and Procolophon within Procolophoninae. The results are shown in two cladograms below:[3]
Analyses 1 and 3: Strict consensus of 760 and 18 most parsimonious trees (MPTs).
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Analysis 2: Single MPT.
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References
edit- ^ Sean P. Modesto; Ross J. Damiani (2003). "Taxonomic status of Thelegnathus browni Broom, a procolophonid reptile from the South African Triassic". Annals of Carnegie Museum. 72 (1): 53–64. doi:10.5962/p.215088. S2CID 90233554.
- ^ C. E. Gow (1977). "New Procolophonids from the Triassic Cynognathus Zone of South Africa". Annals of the South African Museum. 72 (6): 109–124.
- ^ 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.