Procolophon
Sign in to saveProcolophon (from , 'before' and , 'summit') is a genus of lizard-like procolophonid parareptiles that first appeared in the Early Triassic (Induan) of South Africa, Brazil, and Antarctica. It persisted through the Permian–Triassic extinction event, but went extinct in the beginning of the Early Middle Triassic.
Article
6 sectionsContents
- History of discovery
- Description
- Classification
- Correlation
- References
- External links
Procolophon (from , 'before' and , 'summit') is a genus of lizard-like procolophonid parareptiles that first appeared in the Early Triassic (Induan) of South Africa, Brazil, and Antarctica. It persisted through the Permian–Triassic extinction event, but went extinct in the beginning of the Early Middle Triassic.
== History of discovery == The first Procolophon fossil was discovered in the 1870s in Donnybrook, an area southwest of Pietermaritzburg in present-day Kwa-Zulu Natal of South Africa. The fossil was accessioned to Harry Seeley, who described the fossil in 1878. Nevertheless, the type species is P. trigoniceps, based on specimen NHMUK PV R 1726 from Tafelberg which was described by Richard Owen a year earlier after its donation by William Guybon Atherstone in 1875. Numerous other fossils have been recovered since from localities across the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces of South Africa.