Palaeagama
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| Palaeagama Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Life restoration | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Neodiapsida |
| Genus: | †Palaeagama Broom, 1926 |
| Type species | |
| †Palaeagama vielhaueri Broom, 1926 | |
Palaeagama is an extinct genus of neodiapsid reptile from the Late Permian or Early Triassic of South Africa.[1] It is known from much of an articulated skeleton. The exact age of Palaeagama is unclear; it was described in 1926 as having been found in rock layers associated with the Late Permian Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone, while a 1975 revision preferred the Early Triassic Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone for the specimen's origins, but did not rule out the end-Permian Daptocephalus Assemblage Zone.[2] Despite the completeness of the specimen, Palaeagama is considered as a "wildcard" taxon of uncertain affinities due to poor preservation.[3][4] It was originally considered an "eosuchian" (ancestral to modern reptiles),[5] and later reinterpreted as a lizard ancestor closely related to Paliguana and Saurosternon.[2] Modern studies generally consider it an indeterminate neodiapsid,[1][4] though a few phylogenetic analyses tentatively support a position at the base of Lepidosauromorpha.[6][7]
