The skeleton of a new hornless rhytidosteid (Amphibia, Temnospondyli)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Good postcranial skeletons unequivocally associated with identifiable cranial material are uncommon among the known temnospondyls from the Triassic. This paper describes the incomplete skull and postcranial skeleton of a new temnospondyl from the Early Triassic Arcadia Formation of Queensland. The fossil is a trematosaurian (sensu Warren & Black, 1985) by virtue of its lack of a lacrimal, absence of tabular horn and otic notch and presence of a palatoquadrate fissure. Although the specimen has no palate preserved it nevertheless exhibits several features which we believe to be diagnostic of the Family Rhytidosteidae. These include the shape of the exoccipital condyles and the presence of divided intercentra associated with at least some of the presacral vertebrae. The genus is distinctive in the deeply concave rear skull margin which lacks tabular projections, in its reduced post temporal fenestra, in the presence of a flange traversing the posterolateral parts of the tabular and squamosal, in its unusually well developed pleurocentra and elongate neural arches, and in its well ossified scapulocoracoid. It is of interest also in the presence of probable gastroliths and ‘ventral ribs’.