Gorgonopsian therapsids ( Nochnitsa gen. nov. and Viatkogorgon ) from the Permian Kotelnich locality of Russia

The early evolution of gorgonopsians is poorly understood. New material from the Kotelnich locality in Russia expands our knowledge of middle/earliest late Permian gorgonopsians from Laurasia. Two gorgonopsian taxa are recognized from Kotelnich: Tatarinov, 1999 and gen. et sp. nov. can be distinguis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2018-06, Vol.6, p.e4954-e4954, Article e4954
Main Authors: Kammerer, Christian F, Masyutin, Vladimir
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dispersal
Fossils
Gorgonopsia
Morphology
Museums
New species
Paleontology
Permian
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Reptilia
Russia
Stratigraphy
Synapsida
Taxonomy
Teeth
Therapsida
Zoology
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Summary:The early evolution of gorgonopsians is poorly understood. New material from the Kotelnich locality in Russia expands our knowledge of middle/earliest late Permian gorgonopsians from Laurasia. Two gorgonopsian taxa are recognized from Kotelnich: Tatarinov, 1999 and gen. et sp. nov. can be distinguished from all known gorgonopsians by its unique upper postcanine tooth row, composed of pairs of teeth (a small anterior and larger posterior) separated by diastemata. Both and are relatively small gorgonopsians, comparable in size to the South African middle Permian taxon . Inclusion of and in a phylogenetic analysis of gorgonopsians recovers them in basal positions, with representing the earliest-diverging gorgonopsian genus. All other sampled gorgonopsians fall into two major subclades: one made up entirely of Russian taxa ( , , , and ) and the other containing only African gorgonopsians. The high degree of endemism indicated in this analysis for gorgonopsians is remarkable, especially given the extensive intercontinental dispersal inferred for coeval therapsid groups.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.4954