Ranohira (Sakamena Fm.) (Permian of Madagascar)

Also known as type locality of Barasaurus besairiei; Morondava Basin

Where: Fianarantsoa, Madagascar (22.6° S, 45.4° E: paleocoordinates 52.4° S, 27.8° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Lower Sakamena Formation (Sakamena Group), Lopingian (259.9 - 252.2 Ma)

• The Lower Sakamena Fm. is generally accepted to be of Upper Permian age (see, e.g., discussion in Carroll, 1981, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 293 and Smith, 2000, Paleont. Afr. 36).

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: paralic; fine-grained, concretionary, sandy shale

• "The environment of the Madagascar localities unfortunately cannot be unequivocally established. [...] one can imagine a mixed environment that would have had a continuous transition from freshwater streams and lakes to brackish and shallow-water marine, seemingly ideal conditions for the evolution of marine reptiles." (Carroll, 1981, p. 338)

•"There is no evidence of the environment having been anaerobic [...] " (ibidem, p. 339).

•Smith (2000) favoures a purely lacustrine origin for the Lower Sakamena of SW Madagascar. The beds dominated by Barasaurus are considered as lacustrine "offshore" facies (Smith, 2000).

• Lithology is not reported by Piveteau (1955), but since the specimen(s) are said to be preserved in nodules it is very likely that the host rock is more or less the same as in the other Ranohira localities mentioned in Carroll (1981, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 293) and Smith (2000 Palaeont. Afr. 36).

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression, concretion

Collected by H. Besairie; reposited in the MNHN

Primary reference: J. Piveteau. 1955. Existence d’un Reptile du groupe des Procolophonidés à Madagascar - Conséquences stratigraphiques et paléontologiques. Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Academie des Sciences 241:1325-1327 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 92491: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 16.11.2009

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• details on specimens collected from the locality are from Meckert (1995, PhD thesis, online)
Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Parareptilia - Owenettidae
Barasaurus besairiei n. gen. n. sp.
Barasaurus besairiei n. gen. n. sp. Piveteau 1955 parareptile
reposited in the MNHN Paris; numbered P1 (type) to P10 in Meckert (1995, PhD thesis)