Apateon dracyiensis BOY, 1972

Taxonomy

"Branchiosaur"

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata Haeckel 1874
Class: Amphibia Gray 1825
Order: Temnospondyli Zittel, 1888
Family: Branchiosauridae Fritsch 1879
Genus: Apateon
Species: Apateon dracyiensis
Author Citation BOY, 1972

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Paleozoic
Period: Permian
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Early
International Age: Asselian

Stratigraphy

Lower Goldlauter Formation

Provenance

Collector: T. Bastelberger
Date Collected: 06/01/2008
Acquired by: Field Collection

Dimensions

Length: 5 cm

Location

Cabarz Quarry
Tabarz
Thuringia
Germany

• apateon
• goldlauter formation
• permian
• tabarz
• thuringia
• ttf-oilshale-ch658

Comments

Taxonomy from Werneburg 2021.

Diagnosis from Werneburg 2021, p. 36ff: "The combination of following characters differs from most other branchiosaurids: (1) Very short maxilla, without contact to short jugal (persisting gap between maxilla and cheek up to adult stage, shared with Schoenfelderpeton). 22 teeth of maxilla are only few more than of premaxilla (16). (2) Parietals elongated and very narrow, like the width of frontals (shared with Schoenfelderpeton, Melanerpeton pusillum, Leptorophus raischi). (3) Prefrontal and postfrontal in contact (shared with Branchiosaurus). (4) Small orbita (shared with Schoenfelderpeton). (5) Wide intraorbital region (IOw/Sl about 0.29-0.37, shared with Branchiosaurus commentryensis, Apateon caducus and A. flagrifer). (6) Tooth base is relatively wide in earliest stage (shared with eryopiformes). (7) Parasphenoid with elongated basal plate and narrow cultriform process in adult stage (shared with Branchiosaurus salamandroides, Schoenfelderpeton, Leptorophus raischi). (8) Choana very wide in adult stage (shared with adult Apateon caducus). (9) Dentary with pleurodont dentition. (10) Hyobranchial skeleton of kontheri-type (shared with Branchiosaurus commentryensis, Apateon kontheri and A. pedestris). (11) Early ossification of exoccipital starting with skull length of 7 mm. Exoccipital relatively high, with a wide shaft, especially wide anteromedial ends and sculpture of longitudinal ridges. (12) Small growing species (shared with both species of Branchiosaurus, Apateon pedestris, A. flagrifer, Melanerpeton pusillum, and M. arnhardti)."

Line drawing from Werneburg 2021, p. 66:

References:

Boy, J. A. (1972) Die Branchiosaurier (Amphibia) des saarpfälzischen Rotliegenden (Perm, SW-Deutschland). – Hessisches Landesamt für Bodenforschung, 65: 1-137.

Werneburg, R. (2021) Morphology, Ontogeny and Variation of the Branchiosaurid Apateon dracyiensis from the Rotliegend (Lower Permian) Cabarz Quarry in the Thuringian Forest basin, Germany. Semana 36, p. 51-86.