Leoposa (Sakamena Fm.) (Permian of Madagascar)

Also known as Morondava Basin

Where: Fianarantsoa, Madagascar (22.7° S, 45.3° E: paleocoordinates 52.4° S, 27.6° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

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

• "Locally, the top of the Permian has been recognized by a prominent nodular layer, above which the nature of the sedimentary record is indicative of the Middle Sacamena Formation, dated throughout the island as Lower Triassic. According to Germain, the aquatic reptiles come from just below this horizon. The spore and pollen flora confirms the Upper Permian age for the beds containing the fossil reptiles." (Carroll, 1981 p. 338)

• member-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)

• "The specimens from Leoposa are all preserved in nodules of uniformly fine-grained sandy shale. [...] The Leoposa nodules are oval or round in outline and relatively thin." (Carroll, 1981 p. 339)

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: concretion

Collected by C. Germain in 1953

Collection methods: quarrying,

• "They [the fossil-bearing nodules] were found during preparation for drilling in the immediate subsurface sediments. Most of the specimens were uncovered by Germain as the result of systematic excavation by bulldozer." (Carroll, 1981 p. 339)

Primary reference: R. L. Carroll. 1981. Plesiosaur Ancestors from the Upper Permian of Madagascar. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 293(1066):315-383 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 85505: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 05.01.2009

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Eosuchia - Claudiosauridae
Claudiosaurus germaini n. gen. n. sp.
Claudiosaurus germaini n. gen. n. sp. Carroll 1981 diapsid
MNHN (PM) 1978-6-1 (type), 1978-6-2; CG 20/4 to 20/11, 20/13, 20/16 to 20/19