Plagiosuchus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Plagiosuchus Temporal range: Triassic, | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Tetrapoda |
| Order: | †Temnospondyli |
| Suborder: | †Stereospondyli |
| Family: | †Plagiosauridae |
| Genus: | †Plagiosuchus Huene, 1922 |
| Type species | |
| † Plagiosuchus pustuliferus Fraas, 1896 | |
Plagiosuchus is an extinct genus of plagiosaurid temnospondyl. It is known from several collections from the Middle Triassic of Germany.
The type and only species of Plagiosuchus, P. pustuliferus, was originally described as a species of Plagiosternum, with the specific epithet as 'pustuliferum' by Eberhard Fraas in 1896.[1] The interclavicle described and figured by Fraas had originally been noted by him as Labyrinthodon sp. in an 1889 publication[2] and before that by von Meyer and Plienenger in a 1844 publication.[3] This interclavicle was not formalized as the holotype but is recognized as the lectotype. The taxon was reassigned to the newly named genus Plagiosuchus in 1922 by von Huene, who described new material that permitted him to differentiate it from Plagiosternum granulosum; this was also when the specific epithet was grammatically modified.[4] Additional material was referenced and briefly figured by Hellrung (2003)[5] and Werneburg and Witter (2005),[6] but most of the osteology comes from the description of a complete skull, figured by Hellrung, by Damiani et al. (2009).[7] Histology of the osteoderms[8] and the limbs[9][10] has also been analyzed.
