A procynosuchid cynodont from central Europe

Abstract

Diversified assemblages of non-mammalian synapsids (or mammal-like reptiles) have long been known from the Upper Permian of southern Africa¹ and the Russian Platform². In contrast, Upper Permian deposits in central and western Europe have rarely yielded remains of terrestrial vertebrates. The German Kupferschiefer (basal Zechstein 1) and its English equivalent, the Marl Slate, have yielded several reptiles: the gliding diapsid Coelurosauravus³ (also known from the Lower Sakamena Formation of Madagascar³⁻⁴), the archosauromorph Protorosaurus⁵, and the pareiasaur Parasaurus⁶. The Cuttie's Hillock Sandstone of northern Scotland has yielded the pareiasaur Elginia and two dicynodont synapsids and is regarded as equivalent to the Daptocephalus zone of southern Africa⁷⁻⁸. We report here the discovery of an incomplete left dentary of Procynosuchus from a fissure-filling in limestones, the so-called Randkalk, of the lower Zechstein in the Fisseler quarry, 1 km south of Korbach, northern Hessen (West Germany). This cynodont mammal-like reptile has previously only been known from the uppermost Permian of sub-Saharan Africa¹⁻⁹. Its presence supports a latest Permian (Tatarian) age for the European Zechstein and, together with other tetrapods common to Europe and Africa/Madagascar, indicates a wide distribution of Late Permian terrestrial vertebrates.