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Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus
Taxonomy
Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus was named by Colbert (1960). Its type specimen is North Museum No. 2321, a partial skeleton, and it is a mold. Its type locality is Yellow Hill Road Quarry, which is in a Norian terrestrial shale in the Hammer Creek Formation of Pennsylvania. It is the type species of Sphodrosaurus.
Synonymy list
| Year | Name and author |
|---|---|
| 1960 | Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus Colbert p. 2 figs. 1-8 |
| 1993 | Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus Sues et al. p. 248 figs. 2, 3 |
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If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.
†Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus Colbert 1960
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Diagnosis
| Reference | Diagnosis | |
|---|---|---|
| E. H. Colbert 1960 | A small reptile of seemingly procolophonid relationships, closely comparable to Hypsognathus in size. The skull seems to have been unusually large in comparison to the size of the postcranial skeleton. The posterior portion of the skull is produced back into a "frill," as is common in the advanced procolophonids, this frill covering about five cervical vertebrae. There are 25 presacral vertebrae, to which are articulated widely spreading holocephalous ribs. The scapula is rather slender, the ilium seemingly deep. The pubis and ischium are platelike bones, the former being proximally constricted and distally expanded. The hind limbs are large, the extended limb being approximately equal in length to the total length of the presacral series of vertebrae. In total length and in each of its component sections the linear dimensions in the hind limb are about double those in the fore limb. The metatarsals are rather slender, and long. The ungual phalanges of the pes are large, pointed claws. | |
| H.-D. Sues et al. 1993 | as for genus |
Measurements
No measurements are available
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| Source: subc = subclass, c = class, subp = subphylum | |||||
| References: Carroll 1988, Hendy et al. 2009 | |||||