Weltevreden (Prince Albert) (Permian of South Africa)

Also known as Welte Vreden; Fraserburg Road, Leeu Gamka

Where: Western Cape, South Africa (32.9° S, 21.7° E: paleocoordinates 59.5° S, 35.6° W)

• coordinate based on political unit

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Tapinocephalus or Pristerognathus Assemblage zone, Abrahamskraal Formation (Beaufort Group), Capitanian (264.3 - 259.5 Ma)

• " [...] Middle Permian Tapinocephalus Zone of the Beaufort Series of South Africa." (Cox, 1969). Kitching (1977, "Distribution of the Karroo Vertebrate Fauna", p. 41) does not assign this locality to a particular horizon of his Tapinocephalus zone. Hence, there is possibility that the beds in question actually belong to the Pristerognathus Assemblage Zone of Rubidge et al. (1995, South African Committee for Stratigraphy, Biostratigraphic Series No. 1).

•Both Tapinocephalus and Pristerognathus AZs are Capitanian according to Catuneanu et al. (2005, J. Afr. Earth Sci. 43). The geographic and biostratigraphic position of the locality suggests that the site is in the Abrahamskraal Formation, which is of Capitanian age (see Catuneanu et al., 2005, J. Afr. Earth Sci. 43 figs. 24, 25).

• member-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: dry floodplain; hematitic, gray, green, silty mudstone

• " [...] deposited mainly by overbank flooding of large meandering rivers of variable sinuosity, draining an extensive alluvial plain [...]. Deposition occurred under semi-arid climatic conditions [...]." (Catuneanu et al., 2005, p. 236; general description of the environment represented by the deposits of the Abrahamskraal and Teekloof Fms.)
• " [...] preserved in a non-calcareous, olive-grey, silty mudstone (subgreywacke),

•which shows traces of haematite staining." (Cox, 1969, with regard to Eunotosaurus)

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression

Reposited in the BMNH

Collection methods: acetic,

• L. Pienaar gave the holotype specimen of Eunotosaurus africanus to Seeley when he visited the Weltevreden Farm in 1889. (Seeley, 1892).

•" [...] prepared with acetic acid until any identifiable and well-preserved skeletal elements were free of matrix. The shapes of any superficial impressions of bones were conserved by filling them with a hard-setting plastic before starting to prepare the specimen." (Cox, 1969).

Primary reference: H. G. Seeley. 1892. On a New Reptile from Welte Vreden (Beaufort West), Eunotosaurus africanus (Seeley). Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 48:583-585 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 90244: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 15.07.2009

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Parareptilia -
Eunotosaurus africanus n. gen. n. sp.
Eunotosaurus africanus n. gen. n. sp. Seeley 1892 parareptile
BMNH R1968 (type; figured by Seeley, 1892, figs. 1 & 2), BMNH 49423 (figured by Watson, 1914, Proc. Zool. Soc. Pl. VII figs. 1 & 2); specimen data are from Cox (1969)