Trematosaurus

Trematosaurus is an extinct genus of trematosaurid temnospondyl amphibian found in Germany and Russia. It was first named by Hermann Burmeister in 1849 and the type species is Trematosaurus brauni.

== History of study == Trematosaurus was one of the first temnospondyls to be described. The type locality, called Merkel's Quarry, is in east-central Germany at Bernburg an der Saale within the Bausandstein (Olenekian) and was collected for several decades from the 1840s into the early 20th century, producing extensive cranial remains, although the majority of these are preserved as internal molds (steinkerns) or natural molds. The name Trematosaurus was in fact coined in 1842 by Carl von Braun, a frequent collector who used the Greek suffix trema ('hole') in reference to the pineal foramen to form the generic epithet, but as he provided no formal description, the name was not considered valid until the work of Burmeister, who named the type species after Braun. Burmeister's work was largely reconstructive and frequently omitted references to which specimens were being described, and as a result, it remains unknown which specimens exactly were covered in his description. This was remedied by subsequent workers who provided specimen illustrations for material reposited at numerous museums across Europe. However, the complete osteology and ontogeny of this taxon remained poorly documented until the work of Schoch (2019).