New finds of Olenekian, Early Triassic, trematosaurid amphibians and prolocophonid reptiles from Poland
Tomasz Sulej, Marcin Machalski, and Mateusz Tałanda
The continental Lower Triassic (Middle Buntsandstein) siliciclastic deposits exposed along the margins of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, yield locally abundant vertebrate footprints and bones. Although the footprints have been described in a number of studies, providing, for example, new insights into the origin of dinosaurs, there are few studies focusing on the bones. Here, we describe new amphibian and reptile material from the Buntsandstein fluvial sandstones of early Olenekian age exposed at Stryczowice on the north-eastern margin of the Holy Cross Mountains. These finds include fragmentary cranial specimens referred to as Trematosauridae gen. et sp. indet. and Procolophonidae gen. et sp. indet. Faunal differences between Stryczowice and the best-known Polish Olenekian vertebrate-bearing site of Czatkowice 1 near Kraków support heterogeneity in the Early Triassic vertebrate distribution across Pangea.
Key words: Temnospondyli, Parareptilia, tooth, parasphenoid, maxilla, Olenekian, Triassic, Poland.
Tomasz Sulej [sulej@twarda.pan.pl; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8839-2736] and Marcin Machalski [mach@ twarda.pan.pl; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1121-4093], Institute of Paleobiology PAS, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland. Mateusz Tałanda [m.talanda@uw.edu.pl; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3358-9539], Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089 Warsaw, Poland.
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