Sclerosaurus

Sclerosaurus is an extinct genus of procolophonid parareptile known from the Early to Middle Triassic of Germany and Switzerland. It contains a single species, Sclerosaurus armatus. It was a fairly small about 30 cm long, distinguished from other known parareptiles by the possession of long, backwardly projecting spikes, rear lower jaw teeth with slightly imbricating crowns, and a narrow band of back armor comprising two or three rows of sculptured osteoderms on either side of the midline.[1]

Sclerosaurus
Temporal range: Early-Middle Triassic, Olenekian–Anisian
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: †Parareptilia
Order: †Procolophonomorpha
Family: †Procolophonidae
Tribe: †Sclerosaurini
Genus: †Sclerosaurus
von Meyer, 1857
Type species
†Sclerosaurus armatus
von Meyer, 1857
Restoration

Traditional classifications, e.g. Carroll (1988) placed Sclerosaurus with the procolophonids, however some phylogenetic studies have found it to be a close relative of the pareiasaurs, and together with that group it forms the clade Pareiasauroidea.[2] More recent phylogenetic analyses place Sclerosaurus within Procolophonidae as originally suggested, and support its referral to the Leptopleuroninae. Sclerosaurus is most closely related to Scoloparia glyphanodon from Nova Scotia, Canada, and together they form the Sclerosaurini tribe within Leptopleuroninae.[3][1]

References
  1. Hans-Dieter Sues and Robert R. Reisz (2008). "Anatomy and Phylogenetic Relationships of Sclerosaurus armatus (Amniota: Parareptilia) from the Buntsandstein (Triassic) of Europe". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28 (4): 1031–1042. doi:10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.1031.
  2. Jalil, N. E., & Janvier, P. (2005). Les pareiasaures (Amniota, Parareptilia) du Permien supérieur du Bassin d’Argana, Maroc. Geodiversitas, 27(1), 35-132.
  3. Cisneros, J. C. (2008). "Phylogenetic relationships of procolophonid parareptiles with remarks on their geological record". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (3): 345–366. doi:10.1017/S1477201907002350.


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