Where: South Africa (31.9° S, 21.5° E: paleocoordinates 59.0° S, 33.8° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Abrahamskraal Formation (Beaufort Group), Capitanian (264.3 - 259.5 Ma)

• "The locality Gansfontein near the town of Fraserburg (De Beer, 1986 and Smith, 1993) has been considered to be uppermost Abrahamskraal Formation because of dinocephalian remains in the vicinity (De Beer, 1986; Smith, 1993; R.M.H. Smith comm. pers.). However, dinocephalian remains were recently found also in the lower Poortje member of the overlying Teekloof Formation (Day et al., 2015a, Day et al., 2015b). The site is placed north of the Great Escarpment, and in this area of the basin the succession is very difficult to measure and correlate because of low relief, low angle of dip, large geographic distance and lack of continuous exposure (Day and Rubidge, 2014, p. 230). Moreover, from the cores it is evident how the succession is reduced in thickness, and some units recognized in the basin depocentre south of the Great Escarpment are missing (Day and Rubidge, 2014), so younger strata may appear lower in the succession (similarly to the successions south of Victoria West; Day and Rubidge, 2019). Therefore, a precise correlation with the units and tetrapod AZ established south of the Great Escarpment is difficult and requires a new detailed study on stratigraphy and fossil content of this area, which is presently lacking. We also note that in the vicinity of Fraserburg the Beaufort succession is attenuated and lacks the uppermost Karelskraal member. Therefore, the Moordenaars Member of the Abrahamskraal Formation is in contact with the Poortje Member of the overlying Teekloof Formation (Day and Rubidge, 2014) and because of the lithofacies similarity and analogue depositional palaeoenvironments this boundary lacks other elements for a correlation (Smith, 1993; Day and Rubidge, 2014), it is possible that this locality was incorrectly mapped and it is actually within the Poortje member of the Teekloof Formation. So, we refer to the Gansfontein site as belonging to the transition between the Abrahamskraal and Teekloof formations." (Marchetti et al. 2019)

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fluvial; lithology not reported

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: trace

Primary reference: L. Marchetti, H. Klein, M. Buchwitz, A. Ronchi, R. M. H. Smith, W. J. De Klerk, L. Sciscio and G. H. Groenewald. 2019. Permian-Triassic vertebrate footprints from South Africa: Ichnotaxonomy, producers and biostratigraphy through two major faunal crises. Gondwana Research 72:139-168 [B. Allen/B. Allen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 224581: authorized by Bethany Allen, entered by Bethany Allen on 21.03.2022

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)