Fossil specimen, on display at Karoo National Park
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Reptiliomorpha
Clade:
Amniota
Clade:
Sauropsida
Genus:
†Eunotosaurus Seeley, 1892
Species:
†E. africanus
Binomial name
†Eunotosaurus africanus
Seeley, 1892
Eunotosaurus (Latin: Stout-backed lizard) is an extinct genus of amniote, possibly a close relative of turtles. Eunotosaurus lived in the late Middle Permian (Capitanian stage) and fossils can be found in the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa. Eunotosaurus resided in the swamps of what is now southern Africa.[1] Its ribs were wide and flat, forming broad plates similar to a primitive turtle shell, and the vertebrae were nearly identical to those of some turtles. Accordingly, it is often considered as a possible transitional fossil between turtles and their prehistoric ancestors.[2][3] However, it is possible that these turtle-like features evolved independently of the same features in turtles, since other anatomical studies and phylogenetic analyses suggest that Eunotosaurus may instead have been a parareptile,[4] an early-diverging neodiapsid unrelated to turtles,[5] or a synapsid.[6]
^Day, Mike; Rubidge, Bruce; Almond, John; Jirah, Sifelani (2013). "Biostratigraphic correlation in the Karoo: The case of the Middle Permian parareptile Eunotosaurus". South African Journal of Science. 109 (3/4): 4. doi:10.1590/sajs.2013/20120030. ISSN 0038-2353.
^Cox, C.B. (1969). "The problematic Permian reptile Eunotosaurus". Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History. 18: 167–196.
^Benton, M.J. (2016). "The Chinese Pareiasaurs". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 18 (4): 813–853. doi:10.1111/zoj.12389. hdl:1983/6d1a4f9b-a768-4b86-acb1-b3ad1f7ee885.
^"The trouble with turtles: Paleontology at a crossroads". EARTH Magazine. Naomi Lubick. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
^Simões, T. R.; Kammerer, C. F.; Caldwell, M. W.; Pierce, S. E. (2022). "Successive climate crises in the deep past drove the early evolution and radiation of reptiles". Science Advances. 8 (33): eabq1898. Bibcode:2022SciA....8.1898S. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abq1898. PMC 9390993. PMID 35984885.
^Lichtig, Asher; Lucas, Spencer (2021). "Chinlechelys from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico, USA, and the origin of turtles". Palaeontologia Electronica. doi:10.26879/886. S2CID 233454789.
Eunotosaurus (Latin: Stout-backed lizard) is an extinct genus of amniote, possibly a close relative of turtles. Eunotosaurus lived in the late Middle Permian...
definite stem-turtle Odontochelys from the Late Triassic of China and Eunotosaurus, a reptile from the Middle Permian of South Africa. Pappochelys had a...
both fossil and genetic evidence by M.S. Lee, in 2013. This study found Eunotosaurus, usually regarded as a turtle relative, to be only very distantly related...
Late Triassic relative of turtles before Pappochelys was discovered and Eunotosaurus was redescribed, Odontochelys was considered the oldest undisputed member...
both fossil and genetic evidence by M.S. Lee, in 2013. This study found Eunotosaurus, usually regarded as a turtle relative, to be only very distantly related...
surrounding intercostal muscle. However, analysis of the transitional fossil, Eunotosaurus africanus shows that early ancestors of turtles lost that intercostal...
once thought to be the ancestors of turtles. The Middle Permian reptile Eunotosaurus from South Africa was seen as the "missing link" between cotylosaurs...
Millerosauroidea. All members of this order are thought to be extinct. Eunotosaurus has been recovered as a stem-turtle in recent cladistic studies. Schoch...
different scenario for the evolution of the turtle's shell. The stem-turtles Eunotosaurus of the Middle Permian, Pappochelys of the Middle Triassic, and Eorhynchochelys...
Permian taxon Eunotosaurus from South Africa as a small burrowing caseid. Between these two dates, other researchers classified Eunotosaurus as a parareptile...
the stem turtle Pappochelys and the potential testudinatan nature of Eunotosaurus. Recent cladistic analyses reveal that lanthanosuchids have a much more...
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