''Pumiliopareia'' is an extinct genus of

pareiasaurid Pareiasaurs (meaning "cheek lizards") are an extinct clade of large, herbivorous parareptiles. Members of the group were armoured with scutes which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Permian ...

parareptile Parareptilia ("at the side of reptiles") is a subclass or clade of basal sauropsids (reptiles), typically considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds). Parareptiles first arose near the ...

from the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

period of South Africa. It is known from a complete skeleton with

osteoderms Osteoderms are bony deposits forming scales, plates, or other structures based in the dermis. Osteoderms are found in many groups of extant and extinct reptiles and amphibians, including lizards, crocodilians, frogs, temnospondyls (extinct ...

Description

''Pumiliopareia'' was about 50 cm in length with a 12 cm skull. It is the smallest known member of the pareiasaurs, measuring only a fifth as long as some of its larger relatives. Like '' Anthodon'', its body was entirely covered with osteoderms. In analyses that support a pareiasaur origin of turtles, the sister taxon of the

testudines Turtles are an order (biology), order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) an ...

. However it specifically shares with turtles a single trait only: Ribs greatly expanded anteroposteriorly (i.e. wide).

Classification

Originally included under the genus ''

Nanoparia ''Nanoparia'' is an extinct genus of pareiasaur that lived in the Permian. Description It was about 60 cm in length, and weighed around 8 to 10 kilograms. Classification This is an unusual small, spiny specialised form. The skull is ve ...

'', it was given its own name by Lee 1997 who found it did not form a clade with ''Nanoparia luckhoffi'', the type species of that genus, and preferred to have monophyletic genera. ''Nanoparia'' may still be a

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

genus, which is allowed in Linanean binomial taxonomy, or it may be that all three pumiliopareiasaurs are similar enough to belong to single genus.

External links

Elginiidae and Pumiliopareiasauria
at Palaeos Pareiasaurs Permian reptiles of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1948 Prehistoric reptile genera {{permian-reptile-stub