''Pantelosaurus'' (meaning "complete lizard") is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of basal sphenacodonts known from the Early Permian

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

(

Asselian In the geologic timescale, the Asselian is the earliest geochronologic age or lowermost chronostratigraphic stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Asselian lasted between and million years ago (Ma) ...

stage) of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It contains a single species, ''Pantelosaurus saxonicus''.

Discovery

''Pantelosaurus'' is known from about 6 individuals including

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

s and partial

postcrania Postcrania (postcranium, adjective: postcranial) in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g. of dinosaurs or other extinct tetrapods, consist of partial or isolated sk ...

l skeletons. All specimens were collected at Königin-Carola-Schacht locality, in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, from the uppermost part of the Döhlen Formation, lower Rotliegend Group (

Döhlen Basin The Döhlen Basin (german: Döhlener Becken) is a landscape unit in the German federal state of Saxony, southwest of Dresden. The Döhlen Basin has a length of 22 km and a width of 6 km and lies within the district of Sächsische Schwei ...

), dating to the

stage of the Cisuralian

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

, about 299–296.4 million years old.

Classification

''Pantelosaurus'' was first described by von Huene (1925) as a

pelycosaur Pelycosaur ( ) is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term ''mammal-like reptile'' had been used, and pelycosaur was considered an order, but this is ...

. In 1940,

Alfred Sherwood Romer Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution. Biography Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...

and Llewellyn Price revised the taxonomy of pelycosaurs and synonymized ''Pantelosaurus'' with ''

Haptodus ''Haptodus'' is an extinct genus of basal sphenacodont, member of the clade that includes therapsids and hence, mammals. It was at least in length. It lived in present-day France during the Early Permian. It was a medium-sized predator, feeding ...

'', creating the new combination ''Haptodus saxonicus''. After describing a new species of ''Haptodus'' in 1977, Currie (1979) synonymized all European haptodontines, as well as ''

Cutleria wilmarthi ''Cutleria'' is an extinct genus of basal sphenacodontids or derived stem- sphenacodontoid known from the Early Permian period (Sakmarian stage) of the Colorado, United States. It contains a single species, ''Cutleria wilmarthi''. Discovery ...

'', with the type of the genus, ''H. baylei''. Later, Laurin (1993 and 1994) considered Haptodontinae to represent a

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

grade of basal sphenacodonts, and revalidated ''Pantelosaurus'' among other genera and species. His revision has since been accepted. Only three

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analyses included ''Pantelosaurus''. Laurin (1994), Fröbisch ''et al.'' (2011) and Benson (2012) recovered it as a basal sphenacodont, more derived than ''

Haptodus garnettensis ''"Haptodus" garnettensis'' is an extinct species of basal sphenacodont from the Late Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian) of Kansas, USA. Taxonomy The holotype of ''"Haptodus" garnettensis'' is RM 14156, a partially articulated skeleton ( ...

'' (Currie, 1977) or in a

polytomy An internal node of a phylogenetic tree is described as a polytomy or multifurcation if (i) it is in a rooted tree and is linked to three or more child subtrees or (ii) it is in an unrooted tree and is attached to four or more branches. A tr ...

with it. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

below shows ''Pantelosaurus''’ phylogenetic position among other synapsids following Benson (2012). Spindler (2016) utilized use of the name Palaeohatteriidae for the clade comprising ''Palaeohatteria'' and ''Pantelosaurus''.Spindler, F. 2016. Morphological description and taxonomic status of ''Palaeohatteria'' and ''Pantelosaurus'' (Synapsida: Sphenacodontia). Freiberger Forschungshefte C550(23): 1–57. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321129043_Morphological_description_and_taxonomic_status_of_Palaeohatteria_and_Pantelosaurus_Synapsida_Sphenacodontia

Etymology

''Pantelosaurus'' was first described and named by Friedrich von Huene in

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

and the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

is ''Pantelosaurus saxonicus''. The generic name is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word ''pantelos'' "complete, finished" in reference to the nearly complete condition of the original fossil specimens, providing information on the animal's skull and most of its skeleton. The specific name is derived from the name of the Free State of Saxony in which the holotype was found.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7131697 Prehistoric sphenacodonts Prehistoric synapsid genera Asselian genera Cisuralian synapsids of Europe Permian Germany Fossils of Germany Fossil taxa described in 1925