A new reptile from the lower Permian of Brazil (Karutia fortunata gen. et sp. nov.) and the interrelationships of Parareptilia

CISNEROS, JUAN; KAMMERER, CHRISTIAN; ANGIELCZYK, KEN; MARSICANO, CLAUDIA; FROBISCH, JORG; SMITH, ROGER; RICHTER, MARTHA

JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2020

1477-2019

A new parareptile from the Cisuralian Pedra de Fogo Formation of northeastern Brazil is described.Karutia fortunata gen. et sp. nov. is the first Gondwanan member of Acleistorhinidae, a cladepreviously known only from North America but thought to be closely related to the RussianLanthanosuchidae. A re-examination of parareptile phylogeny indicates that lanthanosuchids are notclosely related to acleistorhinids. These results are more congruent both stratigraphically andbiogeographically than the previous ?lanthanosuchoid? position for acleistorhinids, as theyeliminate a 15 Ma ghost lineage within parareptiles, leaving Acleistorhinidae as an exclusivelyPennsylvanian/Cisuralian clade from western Pangaea. Karutia fortunata contributes to ourknowledge of the early Permian diversity of Parareptilia in Gondwana, a clade previouslyrepresented only by the mesosaurid inhabitants of the Irati-Whitehill epicontinental sea in thesouthern portion of the supercontinent. The new parareptile joins captorhinids in the amniote recordof the Pedra de Fogo Formation, improving our picture of the inland tetrapod fauna of the southernhemisphere during the Cisuralian.