Pantelosaurus

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Pantelosaurus
Temporal range: Early Permian, Asselian
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Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Sphenacodontia
Genus: †Pantelosaurus
von Huene, 1925
Type species
<templatestyles src="Noitalic/styles.css"/>Pantelosaurus saxonicus
von Huene, 1925
Synonyms

Haptodus saxonicus Romer & Price, 1940

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Pantelosaurus (meaning "complete lizard") is an extinct genus of basal sphenacodont known from the Early Permian period (Asselian stage) of Saxony, Germany. It contains a single species, Pantelosaurus saxonicus.[1][2]

Discovery

Pantelosaurus is known from about 6 individuals including skulls and partial postcranial skeletons. All specimens were collected at Königin-Carola-Schacht locality, in Dresden, from the uppermost part of the Döhlen Formation, lower Rotliegend Group (Döhlen Basin), dating to the Asselian stage of the Cisuralian series, about 299-296.4 million years old.[1][2]

Description

Pantelosaurus was first described by von Huene (1925) as a pelycosaur. In 1940, Alfred Sherwood Romer & Llewellyn Price revised the taxonomy of pelycosaurs and synonymized Pantelosaurus with Haptodus, creating the new combination Haptodus saxonicus. After describing a new species of Haptodus in 1977, Currie (1979) synonymized all European haptodontines, as well as Cutleria wilmarthi, with the type of the genus, H. baylei. Later, Laurin (1993 and 1994) considered Haptodontinae to represent a polyphyletic grade of basal sphenacodonts, and revalidated Pantelosaurus among other genera and species. His revision has been accepted since.[3] Only three phylogenetic analyses included Pantelosaurus. Laurin (1994), Fröbisch et al. (2011) and Benson (in press) recovered it as a basal sphenacodont, more derived then Haptodus garnettensis (Currie, 1977) or in a polytomy with it.[1][2][4] The cladogram below shows Pantelosaurus phylogenetic position among other synapsids following Benson (in press).[2]



Tseajaia campi



Limnoscelis paludis


Amniota


Captorhinus spp.



Protorothyris archeri



Synapsida


Ophiacodontidae



Varanopidae





Caseasauria




Ianthodon schultzei




Edaphosauridae


Sphenacodontia

Haptodus garnettensis




Pantelosaurus saxonicus




Therapsida


Sphenacodontidae

Cutleria wilmarthi




Secodontosaurus obtusidens




Cryptovenator hirschbergeri




Dimetrodon spp.



Sphenacodon spp.















Etymology

Pantelosaurus was first described and named by Friedrich von Huene in 1925 and the type species is Pantelosaurus saxonicus. The generic name is derived from the Greek word pantelos "complete, finished" in reference to the nearly complete condition of the original fossil specimens, providing information on the animal's skull and most of its skeleton. The specific name is derived from the name of the Free State of Saxony in which the holotype was found.[1]

References

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