''Hwiccewyrm'' (meaning "''

Hwicce Hwicce () was a kingdom in Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon England. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham. After 628, the kingdom became a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result ...

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of leptopleuronine

procolophonid Procolophonidae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like parareptiles known from the Late Permian to Late Triassic that were distributed across Pangaea, having been reported from Europe, North America, China, South Africa, South America, Antarc ...

parareptile Parareptilia ("near-reptiles") is an extinct group of Basal (phylogenetics), basal Sauropsida, sauropsids ("Reptile, reptiles"), traditionally considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds ...

from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

Magnesian Conglomerate The Magnesian Conglomerate is a geological Formation (geology), formation in Clifton, Bristol in England (originally Avon (county), Avon), Gloucestershire and southern Wales, present in Tytherington, Gloucestershire, Tytherington, Durdham Down, S ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The type, and currently only, species is ''H. trispiculum''.

Discovery and naming

The holotype, specimen UMZC 2023.4.1, which is a partial skull, was discovered during the 1970s by Jeanne Evans and was likely found at Slickstones Quarry,

Cromhall Cromhall is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. It is located between Bagstone and Charfield on the B4058, and also borders Leyhill. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was 1,231. Location Cromhall is about from Falfie ...

in an outcrop of the

. More specimens from the same species were later found at Slickstones Quarry, and were first described by Fraser (1988a) as belonging to an indeterminate

.Fraser, N. C. (1988a). The osteology and relationships of ''

Clevosaurus ''Clevosaurus'' (meaning "Gloucester lizard") is an extinct genus of rhynchocephalian reptile from the Late Triassic and the Early Jurassic periods. Species of ''Clevosaurus'' were widespread across Pangaea, and have been found on all continents ...

'' (Reptilia: Sphenodontida). ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London'', B321, 125–178. The species is referred to as the 'Cromhall procolophonid' by Fraser (1988c) and as 'Procolophonid B' by Fraser (1994) and Edwards (2000). The specimens were then referred to ''

cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...

'' ''

Hypsognathus ''Hypsognathus'' (from , 'height' and , 'jaw') is an extinct genus of procolophonid parareptile from the Late Triassic of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Nova Scotia. ''Hypsognathus'' resembled a moderately sized lizard, with a length of , alth ...

'' by Whiteside ''et al.'' (2016),Whiteside, D. I., Duffin, C. J., Gill, P. G., Marshall, J. E. A., & Benton, M. J. (2016). The Late Triassic and Early Jurassic fissure faunas from Bristol and South Wales: Stratigraphy and setting. ''Palaeontologia Polonica'', 67, 257–287. and

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

''et al.'' (2023) identified that the specimens belonged to a separate genus, naming it ''Hwiccewyrm trispiculum''.

Classification

Ever since its discovery, ''Hwiccewyrm'' has been classified within

Procolophonidae Procolophonidae is an extinct family (biology), family of small, lizard-like parareptiles known from the Late Permian to Late Triassic that were distributed across Pangaea, having been reported from Europe, North America, China, South Africa, Sou ...

. In 2023, it was classified into the subfamily

Leptopleuroninae Leptopleuroninae is an extinct subfamily of procolophonid reptiles. It is defined as all taxa closer to '' Leptopleuron lacertinum'' than to ''Procolophon trigoniceps''. The oldest member of Leptopleuroninae is '' Phonodus dutoitorum'' from the ...

. ''Hwiccewyrm'' was found to be the sister-taxon to ''

'', '' Soturnia'' and ''

Leptopleuron ''Leptopleuron'' is an extinct genus of procolophonid that lived in the dry lands during the late Triassic in Elgin of northern Scotland and was the first to be included in the clade of Procolophonidae. First described by English paleontologist ...

''.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q124348230 Triassic parareptiles Leptopleuroninae Late Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2023 Prehistoric reptile genera