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First record of the early Mesozoic sphenodontian Clevosaurus (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia) from the Southern Hemisphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Hans-Dieter Sues  and
Robert R. Reisz
Hans-Dieter Sues
Affiliation:
Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C6, Canada and Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
Robert R. Reisz
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Erindale Campus, University of Toronto, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1C6, Canada
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Abstract

An incomplete skull of a small sphenodontian lepidosaur from the upper part of the Stormberg Group of southern Africa is referable to Clevosaurus Swinton, 1939. It is most closely related to C. bairdi from the McCoy Brook Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Nova Scotia (Canada) and C. mcgilli from the Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Yunnan (China). The new specimen is important because it represents the first record of Clevosaurus from the Southern Hemisphere. Like many other taxa of Early Jurassic continental tetrapods (crocodylomorph archosaurs, dinosaurs, synapsids), Clevosaurus had an apparently Pangaean distribution.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 123 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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