Capitosauria

Capitosauria
Temporal range: Triassic, 251.902–237 Ma
Mastodonsaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Order:†Temnospondyli
Suborder:†Stereospondyli
Clade:†Capitosauria
Schoch and Milner, 2000
Clades

Capitosauria is an extinct group of large temnospondyl amphibians with simplified stereospondyl vertebrae. Mainly living as piscivores in lakes and rivers, the Capitosauria and its sister taxon Trematosauria were the only major labyrinthodonts that existed during the Mesozoic in ecological niches broadly similar to those of modern crocodiles, and some grew to very large sizes. At 6 meter in length, the Mid-Triassic Mastodonsaurus giganteus is not only thought to have been the largest capitosaur, but possibly also the largest amphibian to have lived.[1] The capitosaurs enjoyed a brief period of success in the early Triassic, but with the rise of crocodiles in the middle Triassic they went into decline, and the capitosaur lineage is not known beyond the Late Triassic.[1]

Capitosauria was first named by Schoch and Milner (2000) and further described by Yates and Warren (2000), who assigned Lydekkerina and Mastodonsauroidea to it.[2][3] It was described by Damiani (2001) under the name Mastodonsauroidea.[4] In their phylogenetic analysis of temnospondyls, Ruta et al. (2007) placed Lydekkerina and its relatives within the clade Rhytidostea, while placing only mastodonsauroid taxa within Capitosauria.[5]

Phylogeny

Below is a cladogram from Fortuny et al. (2011) showing the phylogenetic relationships of capitosaurs:[6]

Stereospondyli

 

Lydekkerina huxleyi

 
Rhinesuchidae

 

Rhineceps nyasaensis

 
 

Uranocentrodon senekalensis

 
 
 

Capitosauria

 

Wetlugasaurus angustifrons

 
 

 

 

Odenwaldia heidelbergensis

 
 

Vladlenosaurus alexeyevi

 
 
 

 

 

 

Edingerella madagascariensis

 
 

Watsonisuchus spp.

 
 
 

 

Xenotosuchus africanus

 
 

 

Cherninia denwai

 
 

 

Paracyclotosaurus crookshanki

 
 

 

 

Stanocephalosaurus pronus

 
 

Stanocephalosaurus birdi

 
 
 

 

Procyclotosaurus stantonensis

 
 

 

Eocyclotosaurus spp.

 
 

Quasicyclotosaurus campi

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Parotosuchus orenburgensis

 
 

 

Calmasuchus acri

 
 

 

 

Cyclotosaurus robustus

 
 

Tatrasuchus wildi

 
 
 

 

Eryosuchus garjainovi

 
 

Mastodonsaurus giganteus

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Trematosauria

 

Benthosuchus sushkini

 
Trematosauroidea

 

Thoosuchus yakovlevi

 
 

 

Angusaurus spp.

 
 

Trematosaurus brauni

 
 
 
 
 
 

References

  1. 1 2 "Capitosauria". Palaeos. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  2. ↑ Schoch, R. R.; Milner, A. R. (2000). "Stereospondyli". In P. Wellnhofer (ed.). Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie. 3B. Munich: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. p. 203.
  3. ↑ Yates, A. M.; Warren, A. A. (2000). "The phylogeny of the "higher" temnospondyls (Vertebrata: Choanata) and its implications for the monophyly and origins of Stereospondyli". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 128: 77–121. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2000.tb00650.x.
  4. ↑ Damiani, R. J. (2001). "A systematic revision and phylogenetic analysis of Triassic mastodonsauroids (Temnospondyli: Stereospondyli)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 133 (4): 379–482. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2001.tb00635.x.
  5. ↑ Ruta, M.; Pisani, D.; Lloyd, G. T.; Benton, M. J. (2007). "A supertree of Temnospondyli: cladogenetic patterns in the most species-rich group of early tetrapods". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 274 (1629): 3087–3095. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1250. PMC 2293949. PMID 17925278.
  6. ↑ Fortuny, J.; Galobart, À.; Santisteban, C. D. (2011). "A New Capitosaur from the Middle Triassic of Spain and the Relationships within the Capitosauria". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 56 (3): 553. doi:10.4202/app.2010.0025.
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