Jeholotriton
Jeholotriton Temporal range: Middle or Late Jurassic, 164 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓ | |
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Fossil specimen, Geological Museum of China | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Urodela |
Suborder: | Cryptobranchoidea |
Genus: | †Jeholotriton Wang, 2000 |
Type species | |
†Jeholotriton paradoxus Wang, 2000 |
Jeholotriton is a genus of primitive salamander from the Daohugou Beds (possibly dating to the late Jurassic period) near Daohugou village of Inner Mongolia, China.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Jeholotriton_Paratype_IVPP.jpg/220px-Jeholotriton_Paratype_IVPP.jpg)
Wang Yuan from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences first described the species in 2000.[1] In 2005, he presented a full description in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology along with C. S. Rose from James Madison University, United States.[2]
The genus name "Jehol-" refers to Jehol Biota, which flourished during the Early Cretaceous in northeastern China. The original naming paper (Wang, 2000) regarded the salamander a member of the biota, but recent studies reveals this fossil-bearing Daohugou Beds is lower, Middle/Late Jurassic in age. The specific name "paradoxus" refers to the strange skull morphology of the animal.
Classification
A phylogenetic analysis by Wang and S.E. Evans in 2006 found that Jeholotriton is a possible sister taxon to Pangerpeton, a short-bodied salamander from an adjacent locality in Lingyuan, Liaoning, strata comparable to the Daohugou Beds. These two taxa are close to the base of crown−group Urodela (modern salamanders), either just outside it or just within.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Wang Yuan (2000). "A new salamander (Amphibia: Caudata) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese and English). 38 (2): 100–103.
- ^ Wang Yuan; Rose, Christopher S. (2005). "Jeholotriton paradoxus (Amphibia: Caudata) from the Lower Cretaceous of southeastern Inner Mongolia, China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 25 (3): 523–532. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0523:jpacft]2.0.co;2.
- ^ Wang Yuan; Evans, Susan E. (2006). "A new short-bodied salamander from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous of China" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 51 (1): 127–130. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
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