A captorhinid-dominated assemblage from the palaeoequatorial Permian of Menorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean)
Matamales Andreu, Rafel (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Roig Munar, Francesc X. (Freelance researcher)
Oms, O. (Oriol) (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Galobart, Àngel (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Fortuny, Josep (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)

Data:	2021
Resum:	Moradisaurine captorhinid eureptiles were a successful group of high-fibre herbivores that lived in the arid low latitudes of Pangaea during the Permian. Here we describe a palaeoassemblage from the Permian of Menorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean), consisting of ichnites of small captorhinomorph eureptiles, probably moradisaurines (Hyloidichnus), and parareptiles (cf. Erpetopus), and bones of two different taxa of moradisaurines. The smallest of the two is not diagnostic beyond Moradisaurinae incertae sedis. The largest one, on the other hand, shows characters that are not present in any other known species of moradisaurine (densely ornamented maxillar teeth), and it is therefore described as Balearosaurus bombardensis gen. et sp. nov. Other remains found in the same outcrop are identified as cf. Balearosaurus bombardensis gen. et sp. nov. , as they could also belong to the newly described taxon. This species is sister to the moradisaurine from the lower Permian of the neighbouring island of Mallorca, and is also closely related to the North American genus Rothianiscus. This makes it possible to suggest the hypothesis that the Variscan mountains, which separated North America from southern Europe during the Permian, were not a very important palaeobiogeographical barrier to the dispersion of moradisaurines. In fact, mapping all moradisaurine occurrences known so far, it is shown that their distribution area encompassed both sides of the Variscan mountains, essentially being restricted to the arid belt of palaeoequatorial Pangaea, where they probably outcompeted other herbivorous clades until they died out in the late Permian.
Ajuts:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FPU17/01922 Agencia Estatal de Investigación CGL2017-82654-P Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-086 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-1666
Nota:	Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya
Drets:	Tots els drets reservats.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Matèria:	Captorhinidae ; Central Pangaea ; Hyloidichnus ; Moradisaurinae ; Palaeobiogeography
Publicat a:	Earth and environmental science transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. 112, Issue 2 (June 2021) , p. 125-145, ISSN 1755-6929

DOI: 10.1017/S1755691021000268

Postprint 52 p, 2.8 MB

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