Vers Fontein/Jan Willem Fontein (Permian of South Africa)

Also known as type locality of "Pareisaurus bombidens"

Where: Western Cape, South Africa (32.9° S, 22.1° E: paleocoordinates 59.8° S, 35.3° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

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

• "Kitching (1977) assigns Vers Fontein to the middle Tapinocephalus zone and Jan Willem Fontein to the low Tapinocephalus zone." (Lee, 1997). This corresponds to the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone and the transition 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). 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

Collected by W. G. Atherstone; reposited in the BMNH

Primary reference: M. S. Y. Lee. 1997. A taxonomic revision of pareiasaurian reptiles: implications for Permian terrestrial paleoecology. Modern Geology 21:231-298 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 93086: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 31.12.2009, edited by Bethany Allen

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Osteichthyes
 Therocephalia - Pristerognathidae
Scymnosaurus ferox Broom 1903 therapsid
"skull"
Pristerognathus sp. Seeley 1895 therapsid
"skull"
 Therapsida - Tapinocephalidae
Phocosaurus megischion n. sp. Seeley 1888 therapsid
 Therapsida - Titanosuchidae
Jonkeria ingens Broom 1923 therapsid
"humerus"
Reptilia
 Procolophonomorpha -
Bradysaurus seeleyi Haughton and Boonstra 1929 parareptile
Pareiasaurus bombidens n. sp. Owen 1876 parareptile
BMNH R1714 (type; formerly 53525)