Fernrocks near Tafelberg Station (Triassic to of South Africa)

Also known as Fern Rocks; ?Trollip siding

Where: Eastern Cape, South Africa (31.6° S, 25.4° E: paleocoordinates 65.5° S, 21.4° W)

• coordinate based on political unit

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Lystrosaurus Assemblage zone, Katberg Formation (Beaufort Group), Induan to Induan (252.2 - 247.2 Ma)

• Although there are no stratigraphic details given in the primary reference, geographic data (if correct) suggest that the locality in question is within the Katberg Formation of the Beaufort Group (see map fig. 24 in Catuneanu et al., 2005, Afr. J. Earth Sci. 43(1-3)). Cisneros (2008, Paleoworld 17(2)) states that "The occurrence of Procolophon in South Africa is restricted to the interval between the middle part of the Katberg Formation and the lowermost Burgersdorp Formation (Neveling, 2004; Smith and Botha, 2005; Botha and Smith, 2006)." Litho- and biostratigraphic data point to a Middle Induan to Lowest Olenekian age (see fig. 25 in Catuneanu et al., 2005).

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fluvial; siliciclastic sediments

• "It [the Katberg Formation] was deposited under arid climatic conditions within the more distal parts of a sandy, bedload-dominated, ephemeral braided stream complex draining a source area composed predominantly of granitic, metamorphic and alkaline volcanic rocks (Hiller and Stavrakis, 1984; Smith, 1995)." (Catuneanu et al., 2005).
• In fact not reported but almost surely siliciclastic.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: cast, mold/impression, concretion

Collected by A. E. Trollip, H. Trollip in 1895; reposited in the BMNH

• "Dr. Schönland in 1895 submitted to me a series of casts of specimens of Procolophon in the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, obtained by Messrs. A. E. and H. Trollip, of Fernrocks. He subsequently brought the original specimens to the British Museum, and gave me the opportunity of taking a series of impressions of the more important of them. [...] A brief catalogue of the specimens was published by Dr. R. Broom, in 1903, in the' Records of the Albany Museum,' vol. i. part 1, pp. 8- 24 [...] " (Seeley, 1905).

Primary reference: R. Broom. 1903. On the remains of Procolophon in the Albany Museum. Records of the Albany Museum 1(1):8-24 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 94309: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 16.02.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Carroll & Lindsay (1985) list some specimens from Fernrocks (and "Trollip siding"),reposited in the BMNH, but do not state whether these are part of the material already mentioned by Broom (1903) and Seeley (1905). Since this cannot be ruled out, these specimens here are are not added to but are regarded as to be included in the material already reported by the latter authors.
Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Parareptilia - Procolophonidae
"Procolophon trigoniceps" = Procolophon trigoniceps, "Procolophon platyrhinus n. sp." = Procolophon trigoniceps, "Procolophon sphenorhinus n. sp." = Procolophon trigoniceps
"Procolophon trigoniceps" = Procolophon trigoniceps Owen 1876 parareptile
BMNH R4125, R10247 (the specimens listed by Carroll & Lindsay, 1985), R5758, R10254, R10255, R10257 (listed in Carroll & Lindsay to come from "Trollip siding")
"Procolophon platyrhinus n. sp." = Procolophon trigoniceps Owen 1876 parareptile
BMNH R3766 (type; cited by Carroll & Lindsay, 1985); specimens are deducted from the original number of 67 specimens of P. trigoniceps listed by Broom (1903)
"Procolophon sphenorhinus n. sp." = Procolophon trigoniceps Owen 1876 parareptile
specimen is deducted from the original number of 67 specimens of P. trigoniceps listed by Broom (1903)