''Pangerpeton'' is an extinct genus of

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

s. Its monotypic species is ''Pangerpeton sinensis''. ''Pangerpeton'' is a metamorphosed, primitive salamander from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

Daohugou The Haifanggou Formation (), also known as the Jiulongshan Formation (), is a fossil-bearing rock deposit located near Daohugou () village of Ningcheng County, in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. The formation consists of coarse conglomerates ...

fossil bed near Wubaiding Village of Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province, China. It is part of the

Yanliao Biota The Yanliao Biota is the name given to an assembly of fossils preserved in northeastern China from the Middle to Late Jurassic.Xu, X., Zhou, Z., Sullivan, C. and Wang, Y., 2017. The Yanliao Biota: a trove of exceptionally preserved Middle-Late Ju ...

. Yuan Wang and

Susan E. Evans Susan Elizabeth Evans is a British palaeontologist and herpetologist. She is the author or co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She received a BSc in Zoology at Bedford College (London), Bedford College in 1974, and i ...

(2006)Wang, Y., Evans, S. E., 2006. A new short-bodied salamander from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous of China. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 51(1):127~130. named this new taxon with a phylogenetic analysis of caudates at familial level including fossil taxa, such as ''

Marmorerpeton ''Marmorerpeton'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric stem group-salamanders from the Middle Jurassic of the United Kingdom. They are among the oldest known salamanders. The genus was first described by Susan E. Evans et al. in 1988, when two ...

'', ''

Karaurus ''Karaurus'' (meaning ''head-tail'') is an extinct genus of stem-group salamander (Caudata) from the Middle to Late Jurassic (Callovian–Kimmeridgian) Karabastau Formation of Kazakhstan. It is one of the oldest salamanders known. ''Karaurus'' ...

'', '' Jeholotriton'', ''

Chunerpeton ''Chunerpeton tianyiensis'' is an extinct species of salamander from the Late Jurassic Daohugou Beds in Ningcheng County, Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia), China. It is the only species classified under the genus ''Chunerpeton'', which means "early ...

'', '' Liaoxitriton'', ''

Iridotriton ''Iridotriton'' is an extinct genus of salamander known from a fossil discovered in stratigraphic zone 6 of the late Jurassic Morrison Formation,Foster, J. (2007). "Appendix." ''Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their Wo ...

'', and ''

Valdotriton ''Valdotriton'' is a genus of extinct prehistoric salamanders. Its only known species is ''Valdotriton gracilis'' (also known as the Wealden newt). ''V. gracilis'' lived during the Late Barremian in what is now Spain. It was found in the Las Ho ...

''. The analysis placed ''Pangerpeton'' as a sister taxon to ''Jeholotriton'' from the equivalent fossil bed, and the two are close to the base of crown−group Urodela either just outside it or just within. In 2022 a more comprehensive phylogenetic analysis, that included additional outgroups such as frogs and '' Triassurus'', recovered ''Pangerpeton sinensis'' as a

stem-group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...

caudatan, just outside the

crown group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor ...

of modern salamanders. This Jurassic amphibian is characterized by its short trunk (only 14 presacrals) and short and wide head, giving a fat body shape, from which the genus name was derived ("Pang" means fat in Chinese).

References

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Prehistoric amphibian genera Jurassic amphibians of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2006 {{paleo-salamander-stub

See also

References