''Selenocara'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of mastodonsauroid

temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') is a diverse order (biology), order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered Labyrinthodontia, primitive amphi ...

. The type species is ''Selenocara groenlandica'', described by Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh in 1935 on the basis of skull bones from the

Lower Triassic The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which is a un ...

Wordie Creek Formation The Wordie Creek Formation is a geologic formation in Greenland. The Triassic Sediments from the region were first discovered in 1926 and preserve fossils dating back to the Triassic period. The temnospondyl '' Selenocara'' is from this formatio ...

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. Säve-Söderbergh originally described it as a new species of ''

Wetlugasaurus ''Wetlugasaurus'' (meaning "Vetluga River lizard") is an extinct genus of Temnospondyli, temnospondyl amphibian from the Early Triassic (Olenekian) Charkabozh Formation, Charkabozh, Kzylsaiskaya Formation, Kzylsaiskaya, Petropavlovka Formation, ...

''. The original material was redescribed in 1997 by

Hans C. Bjerring Hans Christian Bjerring (born May 30, 1931) is a Danish-Swedish vertebrate paleontologist and comparative anatomist. He has spent his career at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Sweden, as curator at the Department of Palaeozo ...

, who transferred ''Wetlugasaurus groenlandicus'' to the separate genus named ''Selenocara''. Bjerring listed the quadrate

condyles A condyle (;Entry "condyle"
in
occipital The occipital bone () is a cranial dermal bone and the main bone of the occiput (back and lower part of the skull). It is trapezoidal in shape and curved on itself like a shallow dish. The occipital bone overlies the occipital lobes of the cereb ...

condyles (both transversally and horizontally), the orbitofacial openings wholly visible through the orbitopalatine openings when viewed ventrally, and the long axes of each orbitofacial opening directed toward the ipsilateral auditive incisure as the characters justifying the exclusion of ''S. groenlandica'' from the genus ''Wetlugasaurus''. Bjerring stated that the generic name is derived from the Greek words ''selene'', i.e. moon, and ''kara'', i.e. head; the name honors paleontologist Eigil Nielsen, who went among contemporary Greenland explorers by the sobriquet of Månen, the Danish word for the Moon. Damiani (2001) disagreed with Bjerring's arguments in favor of regarding ''Selenocara'' as a genus distinct from ''Wetlugasaurus''. The author stated that in ''Wetlugasaurus groenlandicus'' the occipital condyles clearly lie well forward of the quadrate condyles; in addition, Damiani did not consider other characters listed by Bjerring to be of signifact taxonomic importance. Damiani maintained ''W. groenlandicus'' as a species belonging to the genus ''Wetlugasaurus''. On the other hand, Novikov (2016) maintained ''Selenocara'' as a genus distinct from ''Wetlugasaurus''. In addition, the author described the second species of the genus ''Selenocara'', ''S. rossica'', on the basis of an incomplete skull from the Lower Triassic Sukhorechka Formation (

Orenburg Oblast Orenburg Oblast (russian: Оренбургская область, ''Orenburgskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Orenburg. From 1938 to 1957, it bore the name ''Chkalov Oblast'' () ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

) and skull fragments from the Lower Triassic sediments of the Orenburg Oblast and

Samara Oblast Samara Oblast ( rus, Сама́рская о́бласть, r=Samarskaya oblast, p=sɐˈmarskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localitie ...

of Russia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q56292789 Capitosaurs Triassic temnospondyls of Europe Triassic temnospondyls of North America Early Triassic amphibians