Weltevreden (Prince Albert): Capitanian, South Africa

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Reptilia
Eunotosaurus africanus n. gen., n. sp. Seeley 1892
2 individuals
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)
see common names

Geography
Country:South Africa State/province:Western Cape County:Prince Albert
Coordinates: 32.9° South, 21.7° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:59.5° South, 35.6° West
Basis of coordinate:based on political unit
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period: Permian Epoch: Guadalupian
Stage: Capitanian 10 m.y. bin: Permian 4
Key time interval: Capitanian Zone:  Tapinocephalus or Pristerognathus Assemblage
Age range of interval: 264.28 - 259.51 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Geological group:Beaufort Formation:Abrahamskraal
Stratigraphic resolution:member
Stratigraphy comments: " [...] 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).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:hematitic,gray,green silty mudstone
Includes fossils?Y
Lithology description: " [...] preserved in a non-calcareous, olive-grey, silty mudstone (subgreywacke), which shows traces of haematite staining." (Cox, 1969, with regard to Eunotosaurus)
Environment:dry floodplain Tectonic setting:foreland basin
Geology comments: " [...] 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.)
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body,mold/impression
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Preservation of anatomical detail:good
Articulated whole bodies:none
Associated major elements:all
Temporal resolution:snapshot
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:acetic,survey of museum collection
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Museum repositories:BMNH
Collection method comments: 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).
Metadata
Also known as:Welte Vreden; Fraserburg Road, Leeu Gamka
Database number:90244
Authorizer:J. Mueller Enterer:T. Liebrecht
Modifier:T. Liebrecht Research group:vertebrate
Created:2009-07-15 07:54:46 Last modified:2010-01-02 14:43:37
Access level:the public Released:2009-07-15 07:54:46
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:
30297. 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]

Secondary references:

31219 C. B. Cox. 1969. The Problematic Permian Reptile Eunotosaurus. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology Series 18(5):167-196 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]