scholarly journals New Specimen of the Enigmatic Dicynodont Lanthanostegus mohoii (Therapsida, Anomodontia) from the Southwestern Karoo Basin of South Africa, and its Implications for Middle Permian Biostratigraphy

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce S. Rubidge ◽  
Michael O. Day ◽  
Julien Benoit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Depositional Environment ◽  
Middle Permian ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Lower Jaw ◽  
Assemblage Zone ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Single Locality

Lanthanostegus is an unusual dicynodont known from only two partial skulls from a single locality near Jansenville in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Although these specimens can be constrained to near the base of the late middle Permian (Guadalupian) Abrahamskraal Formation, their precise age is uncertain as a result of diachroneity of the base of the Formation and the absence, in the Jansenville area, of index taxa to correlate this horizon with the biostratigraphy established in the Western Cape Province. Here, we describe a third skull that we identify as Lanthanostegus, which we recently discovered from a locality north of Laingsburg, on the western side of the main Karoo Basin. This skull reveals morphological details of the palate, occiput, and lower jaw that are not preserved in the described specimens of Lanthanostegus mohoii and will advance understanding of this poorly known dicynodont. This discovery provides the first direct correlation between the lower Abrahamskraal Formation at Jansenville on the eastern side of the basin and the southwestern part of the basin, and suggests that Lanthanostegus occurs in the lowest Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone (AZ), or possibly to a new assemblage transitional between the Eodicynodon and Tapinocephalus AZs. This supports earlier work proposing that the Eodicynodon AZ is present only on the western side of the Karoo Basin and that the transition from a marine to continental depositional environment occurred later toward the East.

Cranial morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the Middle Permian pareiasaur Embrithosaurus schwarzi from the Karoo Basin of South Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Johan Van den Brandt ◽  
Fernando Abdala ◽  
Bruce Sidney Rubidge
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Middle Permian ◽  
Cranial Morphology ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Assemblage Zone ◽  
Mandibular Teeth ◽  
First Time ◽  
Globally Distributed ◽  
Distinct Taxon

Abstract Pareiasaurs were globally distributed, abundant, herbivorous parareptiles of the Middle to Late Permian, with the basal-most members found in the Middle Permian of South Africa. These basal taxa were particularly abundant and went extinct at the end of the Gaudalupian (Capitanian) at the top of the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone. Currently four taxa are recognized in this group: Bradysaurus seeleyi, B. baini, Nochelesaurus alexanderi and Embrithosaurus schwarzi, but they are all poorly understood. We here present the first detailed cranial description and updated diagnosis for Embrithosaurus schwarzi. No cranial autapomorphies were identified. However, Embrithosaurus schwarzi is a distinct taxon in this group, based on its unique dentition and using a combination of cranial features. It has nine marginal cusps on all maxillary and mandibular teeth, and wider maxillary teeth than in the co-occurring taxa, due to the marginal cusps being arranged more regularly around the crown, and the apex of the crown lacking the long, central, three-cusped trident. Our updated phylogenetic analysis recovers the four Middle Permian South African taxa as a monophyletic group for the first time, which we call Bradysauria, comprising a clade including Embrithosaurus, Bradysaurus baini and a polytomy including Nochelesaurus and Bradysaurus seeleyi.

scholarly journals Cranial morphology of the middle Permian pareiasaur Nochelesaurus alexanderi from the Karoo Basin of South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Marc J. VAN DEN BRANDT ◽  
Bruce S. RUBIDGE ◽  
Julien BENOIT ◽  
Fernando ABDALA
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Local Group ◽  
Cranial Morphology ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Lower Jaw ◽  
Basal Group ◽  
Assemblage Zone ◽  
Globally Distributed ◽  
Distinct Taxon

ABSTRACT Pareiasaurs were globally distributed, abundant, herbivorous parareptiles with the basal-most members found only in the mid-Permian of South Africa. These basal forms form a monophyletic group and were locally abundant and became extinct at the top of the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone at the end of the Guadalupian. Four species of basal pareiasaurs are currently recognised: Bradysaurus baini, B. seeleyi, Embrithosaurus schwarzi and Nochelesaurus alexanderi, but they are all poorly understood and there remains historic uncertainty as to their validity. In this paper, our second contribution designed to improve understanding of the basal group, we present the first detailed cranial description and updated diagnosis for Nochelesaurus alexanderi and demonstrate that it is a distinct taxon based on one cranial autapomorphy, a large transversely wide postparietal, and a combination of cranial characters. Within the local group of mid-Permian pareiasaurs, we recognise new dental features of Nochelesaurus alexanderi: non-symmetrical marginal cusp arrangements on upper and lower teeth resulting from an extra basal mesial cusp; an incipient horizontal cingulum on lower jaw teeth, sometimes with one or two tiny medial cingular cusps; and up to ten marginal cusps. Our study demonstrates that tooth morphology and orientation, cranial ornamentation, morphology of the cheek bosses, shape of the postfrontal and postparietal, and morphology of the distal paroccipital process of the opisthotic are the most useful to identify South African mid-Permian pareiasaurs.

Biostratigraphy of the Eodicynodon Assemblage Zone (Beaufort Group, Karoo Supergroup), South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
B.S. Rubidge ◽  
M.O. Day
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Middle Permian ◽  
Southwestern Part ◽  
Delta Plain ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Maximum Thickness ◽  
The North ◽  
Terrestrial Environments ◽  
Assemblage Zone

Abstract The middle Permian Eodicynodon Assemblage Zone is the lowermost biozone of the Beaufort Group (Adelaide Subgroup, Karoo Supergroup) and occurs in the southwestern part of the main Karoo Basin. It is host to a diverse assemblage of basal therapsid genera of which Eodicynodon is the most abundant. The biozone reaches a maximum thickness of 1 100 m in the Prince Albert Road area and thins to the east and west. The biozone corresponds to the Combrinkskraal and Grootfontein members of the Abrahamskraal Formation, directly overlies the Waterford Formation of the Ecca Group, and records the earliest middle Permian terrestrial environments of Gondwana. Rocks of the biozone were deposited along the southern shoreline of the Karoo Basin in a subaerial delta plain environment as part of large-scale fan systems draining to the north and northeast within a second-order highstand systems tract.

scholarly journals The genus Xiphinema in South Africa. XXVI. New information on X. bolandium, with description of the four juvenile stages (Nematoda: Longidoridae)

Koedoe ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Heyns
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Western Cape Province ◽  
New Information ◽  
Wilderness Area ◽  
Juvenile Stages ◽  
First Time ◽  
New Distribution

A population of Xiphinema bolandium from the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area in the Eastern Cape Province was studied, and the four juvenile stages described and figured for the first time. New distribution records are listed from several localities in the Western Cape Province, mostly from vineyards and peach orchards, as well as from fynbos.

New social bandits? A comparative analysis of gangsterism in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Theodore Petrus ◽  
Irvin Kinnes
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Effective Intervention ◽  
Gang Violence ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
The Social

Gang violence has been extensively highlighted as an issue of national concern in South Africa. Gangs also pose concerns about the social contexts of the communities in which they are found. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces have had the most prolific occurrences of gangsterism. Here gangs have demonstrated unique characteristics that set them apart from gangs in other areas. This article examines the context of gangsterism in the selected provinces by means of a comparative analysis. The purpose is to provide some strategies for effective intervention. The discussion also interrogates how or why intervention efforts may have failed and what could be improved in order to strengthen the chances of success of future interventions in affected communities.

Biostratigraphy of the Scalenodontoides Assemblage Zone (Stormberg Group, Karoo Supergroup), South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.A. Viglietti ◽  
B.W. McPhee ◽  
E.M. Bordy ◽  
L. Sciscio ◽  
P.M. Barrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Maximum Thickness ◽  
Nomen Dubium ◽  
Assemblage Zone

Abstract The Scalenodontoides Assemblage Zone (SAZ) is the oldest fossil tetrapod biozone of the Stormberg Group (Karoo Supergroup) and preserves the oldest dinosaur bearing deposits in the Karoo Basin. The SAZ represents a revision of the ‘Euskelosaurus’ Range Zone, whose taxonomic basis has been undermined because ‘Euskelosaurus’ is well demonstrated to be a nomen dubium. Recent qualitative and quantitative investigations into the biostratigraphy of the Elliot and Clarens formations have resulted in the first biostratigraphic review of all lower Elliot Formation (lEF) taxa in nearly 40 years. Thus, we replace the ‘Euskelosaurus’ Range Zone with a new biostratigraphic assemblage zone, the Scalenodontoides Assemblage Zone (SAZ). Named after the traversodontid cynodont Scalenodontoides macrodontes, which co-occurs with the sauropodomorphs Blikanasaurus cromptoni and Melanorosaurus readi. The SAZ is currently accepted to range in age between the upper Norian and Rhaetian. Our new biozone, which reaches a maximum thickness of ~200 m, is wholly contained within the lower Elliot Formation (Stormberg Group, Karoo Supergroup).

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