Jeholotriton

Jeholotriton is a genus of primitive salamander from the Daohugou Beds (possibly dating to the late Jurassic period) near Daohugou village of Inner Mongolia, China.

Jeholotriton
Temporal range: Middle or Late Jurassic, 164 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Suborder: Cryptobranchoidea
Genus: †Jeholotriton
Wang, 2000
Type species
†Jeholotriton paradoxus
Wang, 2000

Wang Yuan from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences first described the species in 2000.[1] In 2005, he presented a full description in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology along with C. S. Rose from James Madison University, United States.[2]

The genus name "Jehol-" refers to Jehol Biota, which flourished during the Early Cretaceous in northeastern China. The original naming paper (Wang, 2000) regarded the salamander a member of the biota, but recent studies reveals this fossil-bearing Daohugou Beds is lower, Middle/Late Jurassic in age. The specific name "paradoxus" refers to the strange skull morphology of the animal.

Classification

A phylogenetic analysis by Wang and S.E. Evans in 2006 found that Jeholotriton is a possible sister taxon to Pangerpeton, a short-bodied salamander from an adjacent locality in Lingyuan, Liaoning, strata comparable to the Daohugou Beds. These two taxa are close to the base of crown−group Urodela (modern salamanders), either just outside it or just within.[3]

See also
  • Prehistoric amphibian
  • List of prehistoric amphibians

References
  1. Wang Yuan (2000). "A new salamander (Amphibia: Caudata) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese and English). 38 (2): 100–103.
  2. Wang Yuan; Rose, Christopher S. (2005). "Jeholotriton paradoxus (Amphibia: Caudata) from the Lower Cretaceous of southeastern Inner Mongolia, China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 25 (3): 523–532. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0523:jpacft]2.0.co;2.
  3. Wang Yuan; Evans, Susan E. (2006). "A new short-bodied salamander from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous of China" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 51 (1): 127–130.


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