GSA Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, USA - 2019

Paper No. 271-22
Presentation Time: 9:00 AM-6:30 PM

A POSSIBLE OCCURRENCE OF EOCYCLOTOSAURUS APPETOLATUS FROM THE MIDDLE TRIASSIC MOENKOPI FORMATION OF ARIZONA


SO, Calvin, Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052; Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI 53706, JENKINS, Xavier, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, MCCULLOUGH, Gavin, Arizona Museum of Natural History, Mesa, AZ 85201 and MILLER, Hannah R., Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1215 W Dayton St., MADISON, WI 53726

Temnospondyls are a diverse group of early tetrapods that dominate a diverse range of aquatic, semiaquatic, and terrestrial habitats. One group of temnospondyls, Capitosauroidea, included some of the largest temnospondyls, but many are poorly understood due to being less charismatic than other more popular taxa. However, they remain incredibly useful fossils to leverage a better understanding of the biogeography and geologic history of the Triassic. Undescribed capitosauroid temnospondyl material (MSM P15771) from the Holbrook Member (Anisian) of the Moenkopi Formation of Northeastern Arizona is presented here as a potential expansion of the biogeographic distribution of the genus Eocyclotosaurus. MSM P15771 is currently not prepared to the extent of a confident diagnosis of the species; however, there remains a suite of characters and in conjunction with its geologic setting, we are able to compare and contrast it to other Eocyclotosaurus species and refer to it as Eocyclotosaurus cf. appetolatus.