6533b855fe1ef96bd12b115e

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A procynosuchid cynodont from central Europe

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description

Diversified assemblages of non-mammalian synapsids (or mammal-like reptiles) have long been known from the Upper Permian of southern Africa1 and the Russian Platform2. In contrast, Upper Permian deposits in central and western Europe have rarely yielded remains of terrestrial vertebrates. The German Kupferschiefer (basal Zechstein 1) and its English equivalent, the Marl Slate, have yielded several reptiles: the gliding diapsid Coelurosauravus3 (also known from the Lower Sakamena Formation of Madagascar3−4), the archosauromorph Protorosaurus5, and the pareiasaur Parasaurus6. The Cuttie's Hillock Sandstone of northern Scotland has yielded the pareiasaur Elginia and two dicynodont synapsids and is regarded as equivalent to the Daptocephalus zone of southern Africa7−8. We report here the discovery of an incomplete left dentary of Procynosuchus from a fissure-filling in limestones, the so-called Randkalk, of the lower Zechstein in the Fisseler quarry, 1 km south of Korbach, northern Hessen (West Germany). This cynodont mammal-like reptile has previously only been known from the uppermost Permian of sub-Saharan Africa1−9. Its presence supports a latest Permian (Tatarian) age for the European Zechstein and, together with other tetrapods common to Europe and Africa/Madagascar, indicates a wide distribution of Late Permian terrestrial vertebrates.