Weigeltisaurus

Weigeltisaurus is an extinct genus of weigeltisaurid reptile from the Late Permian Kupferschiefer of Germany and Marl Slate of England. It has a single species, originally named as Palaechamaeleo jaekeli in 1930 and later assigned the name Weigeltisaurus jaekeli in 1939, when it was revealed that Palaeochamaeleo was a preoccupied name. A 1987 review by Evans and Haubold later lumped Weigeltisaurus jaekeli under Coelurosauravus as a second species of that genus. A 2015 reassessment of skull morphology study substantiated the validity of Weigeltisaurus and subsequent authors have used this genus. Like other weigeltisaurids, it possessed long rod-like bones that radiated from the trunk that were likely used to support membranes used for gliding, similar to extant Draco lizards.

== History of discovery == left|thumb|Holotype specimen (SSWG 113/7) The first remains of Weigeltisaurus jaekeli were described by Johannes Weigelt in 1930 from a specimen (SSWG 113/7) found in the Kupferschiefer near the town of Eisleben in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The specimen was purchased from a fossil dealer in 1913 by Otto Jaekel. Jaekel had considered the bony rods to be caudal fin spines of the coelacanth Coelacanthus granulatus that was also known from the Kupferschiefer, and so the rods were prepared away to expose the skeleton. Johannes Weigelt named the new species Palaeochamaeleo jaekeli both in honour of Jaekel and in reference to the similarity of the skull morphology to those of chameleons.