PBDB Collection

Groot Kruidfontein (Permian of South Africa)

Also known as Kruitfontein

Where: Western Cape, South Africa (32.8° S, 22.0° E: paleocoordinates 59.7° S, 35.3° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

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

• Kitching (1977, "Distribution of the Karroo Vertebrate Fauna") assigns this locality to the lower Tapinocephalus Zone. This corresponds to the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone of Rubidge et al. (1995, South African Committee for Stratigraphy, Biostratigraphic Series No. 1).

•The Tapinocephalus AZ is Capitanian according to Catuneanu et al. (2005, J. Afr. Earth Sci. 43). Since the locality is west of 24°E it very likely is within the Abrahamskraal Fm. (see Catuneanu et al., 2005 figs. 24, 25).

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: "floodplain"; sandstone and claystone

• " [...] deposited mainly by overbank flooding of large meandering rivers of variable sinuosity, draining an extensive alluvial plain [...]" (Catuneanu et al., 2005).

• "fining-upward succession of sandstones and purple mudstones containing numerous thin chert bands and rich tetrapod faunas" (general lithology description of the Abrahamskraal Fm. in Catuneanu et al., 2005, J. Afr. Earth Sci. 43).

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: SAM = Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town

Primary reference: S. H. Haughton and L. D. Boonstra. 1929. Pareiasaurian studies. Part I. - An Attempt at a Classification of the Pareiasauria based on Skull Features. Annals of the South African Museum 28(1):79-87 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 93085: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 31.12.2009, edited by Bethany Allen

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Data on the provenance of the Bradysaurus baini specimen are somewhat contradictory and confusing in the literature. Haughton & Boonstra (1929) state that it comes from "Grootfontein, Prince Albert Division". Apparently there is, however, no farm bearing that name in the Prince Albert District, but there are two farms bearing that name in the Beaufort West District, both of which could well have provided pareiasaur remains, given their geographic position.

•Kitching (1977, "Distribution of the Karroo Vertebrate Fauna") does not mention any pareiasaurs from his two "Grootfontein" collections of the Tapinocephalus zone, but lists B. baini as coming from "Groot Kruidfontein" (erroneously said to belong to the Beaufort West District, ibid., p. 37).

•Thus, the B. baini specimen is included in the present collection.

Show authors, comments, and common names

Osteichthyes
Therapsida - Titanosuchidae	"Jonkeria crassus n. sp." = Jonkeria haughtoni "Jonkeria crassus n. sp." = Jonkeria haughtoni Broom 1929 therapsid
Reptilia
Procolophonomorpha -	Bradysaurus seeleyi, Bradysaurus baini Bradysaurus seeleyi Haughton and Boonstra 1929 parareptile SAM 5627 (specimen not mentioned by Lee, 1997, Mod. Geol. 21) Bradysaurus baini Seeley 1892 parareptile SAM 4999 (specimen not mentioned by Lee, 1997, and said to come from "Grootfontein" by Haughton & Boonstra, 1929; see comments on taxonomic list)