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Skulls of Plagiosauroidea and a related outgroup in occipital view. A, Arcadia myriadens (from Warren & Black, 1985). B, Laidleria gracilis (modified from Warren, 1998). C, the plagiosaurid Plagiosternum danilovi (from Shishkin, 1987). Apomorphic conditions of the plagiosauroids (Laidleria and Plagiosternum) are highly reduced posttemproal fenestrae (character 46) and an overhanging quadratojugal separated from the quadrate by a sulcus (arrowed) (character 35). Scale bars=30 mm.
Source publication
In the thirty years since the last comprehensive review of the Brachyopidae many new brachyopid genera have been described and several different phylogenies proposed. This paper provides revised diagnoses of the Brachyopidae, their sister taxon, the Chigutisauridae, and the Brachyopoidea, erects a new higher taxon, Brachyopomorpha to include stem b...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... ( Abel, 1919) (Fig. 10) Phylogenetic definition. A node based taxon including Laidleria and Plagiosaurus and all descendants of their most recent common ...
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... synapomorphies. (4) Frontals contribute to the orbital margins; (6) reversal to jugal not extending anteriorly to the orbit; (28) otic notch absent; (33) reversal to narrowly spaced orbits; (35) * sulcus between the lateral margin of the quadrate condyle and the postero-lateral corner of the quadratojugal, visible in occipital view (Fig. 10); (46) * reduction of the posttemporal fenestrae to small foramina or absent altogether (Fig. 10); (106) * neural spines with lateral buttresses; (108) pleurocentra highly reduced or absent; (120) tessellating mosaic of ornamented, dorsal ...
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... not extending anteriorly to the orbit; (28) otic notch absent; (33) reversal to narrowly spaced orbits; (35) * sulcus between the lateral margin of the quadrate condyle and the postero-lateral corner of the quadratojugal, visible in occipital view (Fig. 10); (46) * reduction of the posttemporal fenestrae to small foramina or absent altogether (Fig. 10); (106) * neural spines with lateral buttresses; (108) pleurocentra highly reduced or absent; (120) tessellating mosaic of ornamented, dorsal ...
Context 4
... The quadratojugal forms a simple corner with the quadrate in occipital view (0), a sulcus present on the quadratojugal, lateral to the quadrate condyles, so that the quadratojugal forms an overhang in occipital view (1) (Fig. ...
Citations
... Despite a temnospondyl jaw being the first tetrapod fossil collected from the Fremouw Formation within the Transantarctic Mountains (Barrett et al., 1968), fossils of small-bodied temnospondyls have been relatively uncommon, especially well-preserved cranial materials (Colbert and Cosgriff, 1974;Cosgriff and Hammer, 1984). As a result, the taxonomic validity and relationships of even the most complete material has frequently been questioned by contemporary workers (e.g., Hewison, 2007;Jeannot et al., 2006;Schoch and Milner, 2000;Warren and Marsicano, 2000). Recent collecting in the Fremouw Formation of Antarctica in the 2017/18 austral summer led to the recovery of substantial, more diagnostic remains of small-bodied temnospondyls from the informally recognized lower member (Collinson and Elliot, 1986;Sidor et al., 2019). ...
... Strictly southern Pangean ranges are documented for chigutisaurids, lapillopsids (sensu lato), and rhinesuchids throughout their respective Triassic ranges. The only definitive occurrence of brachyopids in the northern hemisphere is the near-equatorial records from the Moenkopi Formation, Hadrokkosaurus and Vigilius (Warren and Marsicano, 2000;Welles and Estes, 1969); Batrachosuchoides from Russia and Poland (Shishkin, 1967;Shishkin and Sulej, 2009) has been suggested to instead be a dvinosaur by some workers (e.g., Schoch and Milner, 2014;Warren and Marsicano, 2000). Luzocephalus is the only nominal lydekkerinid from the northern hemisphere and occurs at high paleolatitudes of Russia and Greenland which would have required a rapid and widespread radiation to achieve this global distribution by the end of the Early Triassic. ...
... Strictly southern Pangean ranges are documented for chigutisaurids, lapillopsids (sensu lato), and rhinesuchids throughout their respective Triassic ranges. The only definitive occurrence of brachyopids in the northern hemisphere is the near-equatorial records from the Moenkopi Formation, Hadrokkosaurus and Vigilius (Warren and Marsicano, 2000;Welles and Estes, 1969); Batrachosuchoides from Russia and Poland (Shishkin, 1967;Shishkin and Sulej, 2009) has been suggested to instead be a dvinosaur by some workers (e.g., Schoch and Milner, 2014;Warren and Marsicano, 2000). Luzocephalus is the only nominal lydekkerinid from the northern hemisphere and occurs at high paleolatitudes of Russia and Greenland which would have required a rapid and widespread radiation to achieve this global distribution by the end of the Early Triassic. ...
Stereospondyls underwent a global radiation in the Early Triassic, including an abundance of small-bodied taxa, which are otherwise rare throughout the Mesozoic. Lapillopsidae is one such clade and is presently known only from Australia and India. This clade’s phylogenetic position, initially interpreted as micropholid dissorophoids and later as early diverging stereospondyls, remains uncertain. Although the latter interpretation is now widely accepted, lapillopsids’ specific relationship to other Early Triassic clades remains unresolved; in particular, recent work suggested that Lapillopsidae nests within Lydekkerinidae. Here we describe Rhigerpeton isbelli, gen. et sp. nov., based on a partial skull from the lower Fremouw Formation of Antarctica that is diagnosed by a combination of features shared with at least some lapillopsids, such as a longitudinal ridge on the dorsal surface of the tabular, and features not found in lapillopsids but shared with some lydekkerinids, such as the retention of pterygoid denticles and a parachoanal tooth row (as in Lydekkerina, for example). A series of phylogenetic analyses confirm the lapillopsid affinities of R. isbelli but provide conflicting results regarding the polyphyly and/or paraphyly of Lydekkerinidae with respect to lapillopsids. The position of Lapillopsidae within Temnospondyli is highly sensitive to taxon sampling of other predominantly Early Triassic temnospondyls. The occurrence of a lapillopsid in Antarctica brings the documented temnospondyl diversity more in line with historically well-sampled portions of southern Pangea, but robust biogeographic comparisons remain hindered by the inability to resolve many historic Antarctic temnospondyl records to the finer taxonomic scales needed for robust biostratigraphy.
... The family Chigutisauridae is much less diversified than the other temnospondyl families. Falling within the superfamily Brachyopoidea which comprises parabolic, brevirostrine skulled temnospondyls, Chigutisauridae forms a single monophyletic family in the phylogenetic position (Warren & Marsicano, 2000). The spatial and temporal distribution of the chigutisauridae is schematically represented in Table 1 along with their general habitat (Bandyopadhyay & Ray, 2020;Bonaparte, 1975;Cabrera, 1944;Dias-da Silva et al., 2012;Pledge, 2013;Rusconi, 1949;Rusconi, 1951;Sengupta, 1995;Warren, 1981;Warren & Marsicano, 2000). ...
... Falling within the superfamily Brachyopoidea which comprises parabolic, brevirostrine skulled temnospondyls, Chigutisauridae forms a single monophyletic family in the phylogenetic position (Warren & Marsicano, 2000). The spatial and temporal distribution of the chigutisauridae is schematically represented in Table 1 along with their general habitat (Bandyopadhyay & Ray, 2020;Bonaparte, 1975;Cabrera, 1944;Dias-da Silva et al., 2012;Pledge, 2013;Rusconi, 1949;Rusconi, 1951;Sengupta, 1995;Warren, 1981;Warren & Marsicano, 2000). The earliest origin of the family chigutisauridae is Keratobrachyops australis in the Early Triassic of Australia (Warren, 1981) with the latest being Koolasuchus cleelandi (Warren, Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1997) in the Cretaceous of Australia as well. ...
... This article will subsequently highlight a brief geological setting of the Tiki Formation followed by the taxonomic status of chigutisaurids from the Tiki Formation and subsequently its role in demarcating the Carnian Pluvial Episode in India. (1975), Marsicano (1999), Dias-da Silva et al. (2012), Warren (2006), Pledge (2013), Cabrera (1944, Rusconi (1949), Rusconi (1951), Sengupta (1995), Warren & Hutchinson (1983), Warren (1981) and Warren & Marsicano (2000). ...
A new, partially preserved skull of chigutisaurid amphibian (temnospondyli) has been reported for the first time from the Late Triassic Tiki Formation of India. Chigutisaurids are now known to occur in Australia’s Early and Late Triassic, the Late Triassic in India, Argentina, and Brazil, the Jurassic of South Africa and Australia, and the Cretaceous of Australia. In India, the first appearance of chigutisaurids marks the Carnian—middle
Carnian / Norian Boundary. This work also attempts to correlate, again for the first time, the advent of chigutisaurids and the occurrence of Carnian Pluvial Episodes (CPE) in the Late Triassic Maleri and Tiki Formation of Central India. The new specimen
belongs to the genus Compsocerops prevalent in the Late Triassic Maleri Formation occurring 700 km south. However, the chigutisaurid specimen recovered from the Tiki Formation is a new species when compared to that of the Maleri Formation. It has the
presence of an inward curved process of the quadratojugal as opposed to the straight downward trending process of the quadratojugal, the presence of vomerine foramen, shorter and wider interpterygoid vacuities, wider subtemporal vacuities, the base of the interpterygoid vacuities at the same level with the base of the subtemporal vacuity, it proves that the Tiki Formation is coeval with the Lower Maleri Formation and a part of Upper Maleri.
... However, fossils from the informally recognized lower member of the Fremouw Formation (Lower Triassic) are fragmentary and often of dubious identification. The first temnospondyl to be named from the lower Fremouw, 'Austrobrachyops jenseni ' Colbert and Cosgriff, 1974, was described as a brachyopid based on a pterygoid that is now accepted to be, at minimum, not a temnospondyl, and is perhaps a dicynodont (e.g., Warren and Marsicano, 2000). The second taxon to be named from the lower Fremouw, 'Cryobatrachus kitchingi ' Colbert and Cosgriff, 1974, was described as a lydekkerinid based on a more substantial holotype that is an uncontroversial temnospondyl (Colbert and Cosgriff, 1974;Figs. ...
... There is no intertemporal, a plesiomorphic feature whose absence can be validated under the assumption that breaks in the postorbital region occurred along sutural contacts. Colbert and Cosgriff (1974) figured a large lacrimal, which is confidently absent only in brachyopids, chigutisaurids, and most rhytidosteids among stereospondyls (e.g., Warren and Marsicano, 2000;Dias-da-Silva and Marsicano, 2011;Schoch and Milner, 2014), but this could not be validated here. They did not figure a lateral exposure of the palatine (LEP), which is a feature restricted to some dvinosaurs (e.g., Foreman, 1990;Sequeira, 1998;Englehorn et al., 2008;Schoch and Voigt, 2019), dissorophoids (e.g., Bolt, 1974), and the controversial stereospondyls Chinlestegophis Pardo, Small, andHuttenlocker, 2017, andRileymillerus Bolt andChatterjee, 2000. ...
... The lacrimal probably was present given the lack of evidence for a LEP, but it can only be identified by position, and the only preserved edge would be the posteromedial suture with the prefrontal. Because some taxa lack both a LEP and a lacrimal (e.g., most brachyopids, chigutisaurids, most rhytidosteids; Warren and Marsicano, 2000;Dias-da-Silva and Marsicano, 2011), the absence of an LEP is insufficient to be assured of the presence of a lacrimal. With that said, AMNH FARB 9503 clearly does not have a brachycephalic shape like the brachyopoids, and the overwhelming majority of temnospondyls lack a LEP and retain a lacrimal. ...
Temnospondyl amphibians are common in non-marine Triassic assemblages, including in the Fremouw Formation (Lower to Middle Triassic) of Antarctica. Temnospondyls were among the first tetrapods to be collected from Antarctica, but their record from the lower Fremouw Formation has long been tenuous. One taxon, ‘ Austrobrachyops jenseni ,’ is represented by a type specimen comprising only a partial pterygoid, which is now thought to belong to a dicynodont. A second taxon, ‘ Cryobatrachus kitchingi ,’ is represented by a type specimen comprising a nearly complete skull, but the specimen is only exposed ventrally, and uncertainty over its ontogenetic maturity and some aspects of its anatomy has led it to be designated as a nomen dubium by previous workers. Here, we redescribe the holotype of ‘ C . kitchingi ,’ an undertaking that is augmented by tomographic analysis. Most of the original interpretations and reconstructions cannot be substantiated, and some are clearly erroneous. Although originally classified as a lydekkerinid, the purported lydekkerinid characteristics are shown to be unfounded or no longer diagnostic for the family. We instead identify numerous features shared with highly immature capitosaurs, a large-bodied clade documented in the upper Fremouw Formation of Antarctica and elsewhere in the Lower Triassic. Additionally, we describe a newly collected partial skull from the lower Fremouw Formation that represents a relatively mature, small-bodied individual, which we provisionally refer to Lydekkerinidae; this specimen represents the most confident identification of a lydekkerinid from Antarctica to date.
... Stereospondyl clavicles are arguably even more highly conserved than interclavicles, and the only diagnostic features of Metoposauridae (following Buffa et al., 2019) relate to the clavicular blade and the articulation with the interclavicle. The latter cannot be assessed here, and the former refers to an intraspecifically variable indentation in the medial edge (Sulej, 2007) that also occurs in brachyopoids (Warren and Marsicano, 2000), which is not completely preserved in either SMP VP-360 or SMP VP-516. Even if a metoposaurid identity is accepted, isolated clavicles usually cannot be referred to a particular taxon. ...
Metoposaurids are a widespread and ubiquitous constituent of Late Triassic non-marine paleoenvironments. In North America, this group is practically the only large-bodied temnospondyl clade, and is particularly well documented from the American southwest and south-central regions (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas). However, metoposaurids are poorly documented from eastern North America, with fragmentary, doubtfully diagnostic historical material such as “Dictyocephalus elegans” Leidy, 1856 and “Eupelor durus” Cope, 1866. The Zions View (early Norian?) locality in Pennsylvania preserves more-complete material, which previous workers noted as belonging to “Buettneria perfecta” Case, 1922 (=Anaschisma browni Branson, 1905). However, the material has never been described in a fashion that characterizes the anatomy or that justifies the taxonomic assignment, yet it would represent the most complete material in eastern North America and a substantial expansion of this taxon's geographic range. Here we redescribe the Zions View metoposaurid material in detail, differentiating it from Calamops paludosus Sinclair, 1917, the only other Late Triassic temnospondyl from the eastern seaboard, and demonstrating confident affinities with A. browni. Our study is the first to properly justify the taxonomic referral, underscoring the broader importance of proper documentation of voucher specimens, especially for potential geographic outliers. Anaschisma browni is thus the most widely dispersed metoposaurid. Its easternmost documentation underscores the importance of the undersampled and understudied metoposaurid record on the eastern seaboard for understanding the development of a metoposaurid zone of exclusivity in North America and demonstrates the need for further exploration to refine conceptualizations of Late Triassic tetrapod evolution.
... At any rate, these measurements are highly tentative, given that track-derived measurements of glenoacetabular length can be longer than the actual length (Brand and Tang, 1991) and that the trackmaker was at least partially submerged and paddling against a current, making it unlikely that the traces accurately represent the glenoacetabular length. Most of the known temnospondyls from the Sydney Basin fall well below the estimated body length of the Berowra tracemaker, although most of these are represented by single specimens and/or juveniles (e.g., Notobrachyops picketti, Platycepsion wilkinsoni, Subcyclotosaurus brookvalensis, Watsonisuchus sp.) with body lengths of < ∼25 cm (Warren and Marsicano, 2000;Damiani, 2001;Retallack et al., 2011). Therefore, maximum body lengths are unknown for many taxa. ...
The Hawkesbury Sandstone (Hawkesbury Series, Sydney Basin) on the southeastern coast of New South Wales, Australia, preserves a depauperate but important vertebrate tetrapod body-fossil record from the Early and Middle Triassic. As with many fossil sites around the world, the ichnological record has helped to shed light on the paleoecology of this interval. Herein, we investigate historical reports of a trackway pertaining to a putative short-tailed reptile found at Berowra Creek in the 1940s. Reinvestigation of the surviving track-bearing slabs augmented by archival photographs of the complete trackway, suggests that these impressions, which consist primarily of didactyl tracks (plus less common monodactyl and tridactyl traces), represent the earliest example of a swimming tetrapod found in Australia. Another isolated specimen (possibly from a nearby locality at Annangrove) appears to represent similar didactyl swim traces of a second, larger individual. Although the identities of the trackmakers are unknown, the Berowra Creek individual had an estimated body length of between ~80 cm (short-coupled) and 1.35 m (long-coupled), and produced the subaqueous trackway while travelling upslope (against the current) on a sandbar within a braided river system of the Hawkesbury Sandstone. These trackways partially resemble amphibian swim traces in the so-called Batrachichnus C Lunichnium continuum, but appear to represent a unique locomotion trace. This reanalysis of the Berowra Creek trackway provides insight into the locomotion of tetrapods of the Triassic Hawkesbury Series, which remains a poorly understood aspect of their life history.
... Antarctic amphibian fossils remain rare and are currently limited to a handful of specimens of uncertain taxonomic relation. Warren and Marsicano (2000) determined that the specimens from the lower Fremouw Formation attributed to the Antarctic genus Austrobrachyops by Colbert and Cosgriff (1974) and Cosgriff and Hammer (1984) include a mixture of brachyopoid and non-brachyopoid material. Unfortunately, the holotype, which was described as a left pterygoid, was judged to be nondiagnostic and possibly to pertain to a dicynodont. ...
... Unfortunately, the holotype, which was described as a left pterygoid, was judged to be nondiagnostic and possibly to pertain to a dicynodont. Warren and Marsicano (2000) therefore declared Austrobrachyops a nomen dubium. However, they assigned a referred lower jaw to Brachyopidae incertae sedis. ...
... The premaxilla forms the anterior margin of the external naris, contacting the nasal posteromedially and the maxilla posterolaterally. As in other stereospondylomorph temnospondyls, contact between the maxilla and nasal precludes the lacrimal from bordering the external naris (Yates and Warren, 2000). Below and behind the external naris, part of the infraorbital sensory canal can be seen traversing the maxilla and the lacrimal, as is typical of mastodonsaurids. ...
... The squamosal embayment is rather wide but very shallow. It is more similar to that of metoposaurids than Almasaurus, and does not have a sunken unsculptured rim as described by Yates & Warren (2000) for the latter. The squamosal resembles the supratemporal in shape and size, having a straight sagittal medial and an anteromedially directed lateral margin. ...
... In his alternative stereospondyl hypothesis, he envisioned the Latiscopidae (Almasauridae) as a sister group of the metoposaurids , together nested with Mastodonsaurus, Eocyclotosaurus, and finally the Capitosauridae. 7. Yates & Warren (2000) performed the first computer-assisted cladistic analysis of stereospondyls , including many taxa relevant to the present study. Their findings were clearly different from the aforementioned in several points: (1) ...
... they suggested plagiosaurids to be nested with other short-skulled stereospondyls (brachyopids, chigutisaurids, and rhytidosteids in particular), and within that assemblage they envisioned the small, carapace-bearing Laidleria as an immediate sister group to the plagiosaurids; (2) they suggested that the latter clade was nested deeply within a group that included trematosaurids, Almasaurus, and metoposaurids, referring to the whole assemblage as the Trematosauria; and (3) they found Lydekkerina to form a clade with Mastodonsaurus and capitosauroids (a group they termed Capitosauria). By that, Yates & Warren (2000) confirmed the trematosaurian concept of metoposaurid ancestry proposed by Milner (1990), albeit with a large clade of short-skulled stereospondyls also having arisen from a vast clade they termed Trematosauria. 8. Schoch & Milner (2000) attempted to form a phylogenetic frame for a higher-ranking taxonomy of stereospondyls, ranking the metoposaurids with Almasaurus, the Platystegidae, and Lyrocephaliscidae in a clade of broad-skulled trematosaurians. ...
Recent finds of well-preserved temnospondyl skeletons from the Lower Keuper (Ladinian, Middle Triassic) in southern Germany are assigned to a new genus and species, Callistomordax kugleri. This taxon is characterized by the following autapomorphies: (1) wide unpaired frontal; (2) vomerine fangs greatly enlarged to occupy entire width of element; (3) intercentra elongated and massive, anterior face being convex; (4) humerus semilunar with enlarged deltopectoral crest; (5) cleithrum strongly curved and bow-shaped; (6) trunk extremely elongated to reach three times the length of the skull. Callistomordax shares with the Metoposauridae the pattern of dermal ornamentation, the proportion of both posterior skull table and snout, the position of the lacrimal, the morphology of the basicranial region, and the structure of the clavicle and interclavicle. Phylogenetic analysis suggests Callistomordax to be the sister taxon of the Metoposauridae, nested within a grade formed by various trematosaurian taxa. In this assemblage, Lyrocephaliscus and a clade formed by Almasaurus, Rileymillerus, Callistomordax, and the Metoposauridae are sister taxa. In all variants of the cladistic analysis, Callistomordax and the Metoposauridae form immediate sister groups. According to the present findings, neither plagiosaurids nor brachyopoids and rhytidosteids are closely related to this ‘trematosaurian’ monophylum, although these taxa share a range of homoplasies. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 152, 79–113.
Brachyopoids represent a diverse and late surviving temnospondyl group, lasting until the Early Cretaceous. Here, we report on brachyopoid material previously assigned to Hadrokkosaurus bradyi that represents a distinct brachyopoid taxon, characterised by a smaller number of large, robust mandibular teeth, a feature rarely observed in other temnospondyls. We also revisit an angular previously referred to Hadrokkosaurus potentially belonging to other temnospondyl taxa present in the Middle Triassic of North America. In light of the abundance of material of possible taxa distinct from Hadrokkosaurus , we express the need to re-examine previously collected specimens as new information changes the landscape of palaeontology. Parsimony analyses using exclusively mandibular characters recover the new brachyopoid taxon from the locality in a polytomy with Hadrokkosaurus and Vanastega at the base of Brachyopoidea, adding to a diversity of mandibular morphology of temnospondyls in the Middle Triassic of North America.
The skull and postcranium of the Late Triassic plagiosaurid temnospondyl Plagiosaurus depressus from Halberstadt (Germany) are redescribed in detail. Plagiosaurus possesses two autapomorphies, the abbreviated tabular and the broad contact between the postorbital and parietal. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Plagiosauridae finds a clade Plagiosaurinae consisting of Plagiosaurus and Gerrothorax. Among other characters, both taxa share the solid box-like sides of the low pectoral girdle, the short but robust humerus with small deltopectoral crest and well-developed supinator process, and an anterodorsally directed lateral line sulcus close to the mandibular symphysis. Compared with Gerrothorax, the skull of Plagiosaurus is deeper and more slender, and the postfrontal is absent, meaning that the parietal forms the posteromedial margin of the enlarged orbit. This new interpretation of the bone configuration shows that reduction of circumorbital bones associated with orbital enlargement occurred three times independently within Plagiosauridae, albeit probably in different functional contexts. Our phylogenetic analysis further reveals the Plagiosuchinae (Plagioscutum + Plagiosuchus) as the most basal plagiosaurid clade, which, in turn, forms the sister group to Plagiosaurinae and Plagiosterninae (Plagiorophus + (Plagiosternum + Megalophthalma)). The mentioned shared derived characters of Plagiosaurinae in the pectoral girdle, forelimbs, and mandibular lateral lines suggest a similar benthonic lifestyle.
In 2020, the Australasian palaeontological association Australasian Palaeontologists (AAP) joined the Australian government-supported Australian National Species List (auNSL) initiative to compile the first Australian Fossil National Species List (auFNSL) for the region. The goal is to assemble comprehensive systematic data on all vertebrate, invertebrate and plant fossil taxa described to date, and to present the information both within a continuously updated open-access online framework, and as a series of primary reference articles in AAP’s flagship journal Alcheringa. This paper spearheads these auFNSL Alcheringa publications with an annotated checklist of Australian Mesozoic tetrapods. Complete synonymy, type material, source locality, geological age and bibliographical information are provided for 111 species formally named as of 2022. In addition, chronostratigraphically arranged inventories of all documented Australian Mesozoic tetrapod fossil occurrences are presented with illustrations of significant, exceptionally preserved and/or diagnostic specimens. The most diverse order-level clades include temnospondyl amphibians (34 species), saurischian (13 species) and ornithischian (12 species) dinosaurs (excluding ichnotaxa), and plesiosaurian marine reptiles (11 species). However, numerous other groups collectively span the earliest Triassic (earliest Induan) to Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian) and incorporate antecedents of modern Australian lineages, such as chelonioid and chelid turtles and monotreme mammals. Although scarce in comparison to records from other continents, Australia’s Mesozoic tetrapod assemblages are globally important because they constitute higher-palaeolatitude faunas that evince terrestrial and marine ecosystem evolution near the ancient South Pole. The pace of research on these assemblages has also accelerated substantially over the last 20 years, and serves to promote fossil geoheritage as an asset for scientific, cultural and economic development. The auFNSL augments the accessibility and utility of these palaeontological resources and provides a foundation for ongoing exploration into Australia’s unique natural history.
