Oorlogsfontein, Aliwal North District (Triassic of South Africa)

Also known as Oorlog's Fontein, Oorlogs Fontein 15

Where: Eastern Cape, South Africa (30.7° S, 26.8° E: paleocoordinates 67.0° S, 12.5° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Cynognathus Assemblage zone, Burgersdorp Formation (Beaufort Group), Anisian (247.2 - 242.0 Ma)

• "Upper Beaufort age" (Broom, 1906). Kitching (1977) lists the locality among those of the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone. The Cynognathus AZ ranges from the Upper Olenekian to the Upper Anisian and (in the Eastern Cape Province) is entirely in the Burgersdorp Formation (see figs. 24 & 25 in Catuneanu et al., 2005, J. Afr. Earth Sci. 43(1-3)). Erythrosuchus is from the Anisian part of the Cynognathus Zone (e.g. Modesto & Botha-Brink 2008. JVP 28:914)

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: dry floodplain; siliciclastic sediments

• "The [...] Burgersdorp Formation, which hosts a rich reptilian and amphibian fauna, consists mainly of dark reddish brown mudstone with subordinate siltstones and sandstones deposited on a semi-arid, slowly aggrading floodplain drained by sluggish meandering stream channels, which supplied water and sediment to the pedogenically-influenced overbank environments via crevasse splays (Hancox, 1998). Lakes and ponds developed on the floodplain, but these were mostly temporary features of the dry alluvial landscape [...] " (Catuneanu et al., 2005).

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by A. Brown

• SAM = Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town

Primary reference: R. Broom. 1906. Contributions to South African Vertebrate Palaeontology. No. 1. On the Remains of Erythrosuchus africanus, Broom. Annals of the South African Museum 5(1):187-196 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 90309: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 16.07.2009

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Reptilia
 Diapsida - Erythrosuchidae
Erythrosuchus africanus n. gen. n. sp.
Erythrosuchus africanus n. gen. n. sp. Broom 1905 archosauromorph
SAM 905 (type). BMNH R2790, R2791, possible fragments (lower jaw, cervical vertebra) of same specimen as SAM 905