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Rare and Endemic Elements in Triassic Tetrapod Assemblages of Obshchii Syrt Highland (Eastern Europe)

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Abstract

The historical sequence of Early Triassic tetrapod communities in the Obshchii Syrt area includes eight consecutive faunal assemblages: this degree of detail in the identification of evolutionary stages is unique on a global scale. Temnospondyl amphibians are the dominant elements in these tetrapod assemblages, with three capitosauromorph groups (capitosaurids, benthosuchids, and trematosaurids) characterized by the widest distribution. Reptile remains are much less frequent. The paper provides a brief overview of the findings of rare and endemic tetrapod groups known from the Lower Triassic of Obshchii Syrt. These include amphibians (qantasids, lonchorhynchids, selenocarine capitosaurids, rhytidosteids, plagiosaurs, some forms of benthosuchids and trematosaurids, and chroniosuchians, the relict anthracosaurs) and reptiles (eosauropterygians, theriodonts, individual procolophonid, protorosaurian, and thecodontian genera). The peculiarity of the systematic composition of the Early Triassic tetrapod communities of Obshchii Syrt and Southern Cis-Urals with respect to that of the coeval fauna of terrestrial vertebrates of the more northern regions of Eastern Europe is emphasized, as is the legitimacy of considering these two areas as a specific region characterized by the distinctive character of their zoogeographical connections.

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Notes

  1. Here and below, the names of localities are as in Novikov (2018).

  2. Relict syrtosuchine remains were identified in four localities of the Early Rybinskian age (Novikov, 2018).

  3. The type species (Trematotegmen otschevi Getmanov) was also encountered in coeval deposits in the adjacent area of the southern Cis-Urals (Kon-Su III locality).

  4. The morphology of this structure is similar in Selenocarinae, geologically coeval (Induan) Lidekkerinidae and trematosauroids (Syrtosuchinae), and a number of juvenile forms of other capitosauroids (Shishkin and Rubidge, 2000).

  5. The attribution (Novikov and Shishkin, 2000) of bystrowianid vertebra from Krasnaya Yaruga II and Vakhnevo (Vologda regiont) localities to the type species is not supported by modern data.

  6. The attribution of a scute fragment from the upper Permian of China (Liu et al., 2014) to D. largum, a species of the genus Dromotectum, cannot be considered reliable because of insufficient preservation of the original material (Novikov, 2018).

  7. The stratigraphic location (Sludkinian horizon) of the only specimen of this monotypic genus known at the time of first description (Novikov, 1991) was reported incorrectly.

  8. Chasmatosuchus parvus F. von Huene, described by F. von Hüne (1940) with an isolated anteriort trunk vertebra as the material, was subsequently re-assigned to prolacertid Microcnemus efremovi F. von Huene, 1940 (Sennikov, 1995).

  9. We only assign the representatives of the Laurasian capitosaurid lineage, including Selenocarinae Novikov, Wetlugasaurinae Säve-Söderbergh, and Parotosuchinae Schoch et Werneburg, to this family, in line with the proposal by Maryańska and Shishkin (1996).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I.V. Novikov and A.G. Sennikov are grateful to OAO Orenburgenergo for comprehensive support of the expedition studies, as well as to paleontology enthusiasts V.V. Konstantinov and A.V. Gruzdev and to the members of the Samara Paleontological Society for the tetrapod materials provided.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (projects 17-04-00410 and 17-54-10013), by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia (pilot project No. 5.5177.2017/8.9.), by the subsidy allocated to Kazan Federal University for the state assignment #671-2020-0049 in the sphere of scientific activities. and within the framework of the state program for improving the competitiveness of Kazan (Volga) Federal University among the leading world scientific and educational centers and the fundamental scientific research program No. 22 “Evolution of the organic world and planetary processes” of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117647, Moscow, Russia

    I. V. Novikov & A. G. Sennikov

  2. Kazan Federal University, 420008, Kazan, Russia

    I. V. Novikov & A. G. Sennikov

  3. Gagarin State Technical University, 410054, Saratov, Russia

    A. V. Ivanov

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Novikov, I.V., Sennikov, A.G. & Ivanov, A.V. Rare and Endemic Elements in Triassic Tetrapod Assemblages of Obshchii Syrt Highland (Eastern Europe). Paleontol. J. 54, 640–651 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030120050111

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