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A new species of Trimerorhachis (Amphibia, Temnospondyli) from the Lower Permian Abo Formation of New Mexico, with discussion of Permian faunal distributions in that state

1980; Volume: 49; Linguagem: Inglês

10.5962/p.214482

1943-6300

David S. Berman, Robert R. Reisz,

Evolution and Paleontology Studies

A new species, Trimerorhachis sandovalensis, is based on a nearly complete skull and large portion of postcranial skeleton from the Lower Permian Abo Formation near Jemez Springs, north-central New Mexico.Numerous other specimens, indeterminate at the specific level, indicate that Trimerorhachis was distributed over a wide area of New Mexico during the Early Permian.Paleogeographic reconstructions of New Mexico at that time suggest that Trimerorhachis, as well as the lungfish Gnathorhiza, rhipidistian crossopterygian fishes, the amphibian Diplocaulus, and the reptile Dimetrodon, were inhabitants of a wide coastal plain that extended from shallow marine environments along the southern margin of the state to highlands along the northern margin of the state.These "coastal plain" inhabitants are absent from contemporaneous, highly fossiliferous beds of the Lower Permian Cutler Formation at Arroyo de Agua and El Cobre Canyon deposited adjacent to the northern highlands, only 45 km north of Jemez Springs.The Arroyo de Agua and El Cobre Canyon faunas, in turn, include many forms not found as yet in the region of the "coastal plain" of New Mexico.