Owenettidae

Owenettidae Temporal range: 260.5–232 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Mid Wuchiapingian - Mid Ladinian
"Owenetta" kitchingorum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Subclass:	Parareptilia
Order:	Procolophonomorpha
Suborder:	Procolophonia
Family:	Owenettidae Broom, 1939
Genera
Barasaurus Candelaria Owenetta Saurodektes

Owenettidae is an extinct family of procolophonian parareptiles. Fossils have been found primarily from Africa and Madagascar, with one genus present from South America. It is the sister taxon to the family Procolophonidae.

The family was constructed in 1939 for the type genus Owenetta. Since then several other genera have been assigned to Owenettidae, including Barasaurus and Saurodektes. The oldest known owenettid, Owenetta rubidgei, dates back to the Wuchiapingian stage of the Late Permian. It and two other owenettids, Barasaurus and Saurodektes, have been found from the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. These strata span the Permo-Triassic boundary and provide evidence for the great faunal change that occurred as a result of the Permian–Triassic extinction event. Although most owenettids lived during the Permian, remains of some taxa such as "Owenetta" kitchingorum (soon to be placed within its own genus^[1]) extend the temporal range of the family into the Triassic. The youngest known owenettid is Candelaria from the Santa Maria Formation of Brazil, which lived during the Ladinian stage of the Middle Triassic^[2].

Description

Owenettids were relatively small procolophonians that possessed broad heads and robust bodies. The family shares several synapomorphies that separate it from other related procolophonomorphs. The absence of an entepicondylar foramen is diagnostic to all members from which the humerus is known. In regards to cranial anatomy, there is no contact between the postorbital and parietal bones as a result of enlarged postfrontal bones, and the skull table is formed partly from large supratemporals lateral to the parietal bones^[3].

References

1. ^ Modesto, S. P., Damiani, R. J., Neveling, J. and Yates, A. M. (2003). A new Triassic owenettid parareptile and the Mother of Mass Extinctions. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23(3):715–719.
2. ^ Cisneros, J. C., Damiani, R., Schultz, C., da Rosa, A., Schwanke, C., Neto, L. W. and Aurélio, P. L. P. (2004) A procolophonoid reptile with temporal fenestration from the Middle Triassic of Brazil. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 271(1547):1541–1546.
3. ^ Reisz, R. R. and Scott, D. (2002). Owenetta kitchingorum, sp. nov., a small parareptile (Procolophonia: Owenettidae) from the Lower Triassic of South Africa. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22(2):244-256.

External links

• Owenettidae in the Paleobiology Database

Paleontology portal