''Eupelor'' is a dubious genus of prehistoric

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

belonging to the temnospondyl family Metoposauridae. Fossils have been found in present-day Pennsylvania, within the Newark Supergroup, dating to 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 ...

(

Norian The Norian is a division of the Triassic geological period, Period. It has the rank of an age (geology), age (geochronology) or stage (stratigraphy), stage (chronostratigraphy). It lasted from ~227.3 to Mya (unit), million years ago. It was prec ...

Taxonomy

The ''Eupelor'' type species, ''E. durus'', was named ''Mastodonsaurus durus'' by

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontology, paleontologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist, herpetology, herpetologist, and ichthyology, ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker fam ...

in 1866 on the basis of AMNH 3927, a number of clavicles and the tooth AMNH 2333 (which could have belonged to a different temnospondyl apart from ''Eupelor''), from the Lockatong Formation (Phoenixville Tunnel site) of

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania Phoenixville is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia at the junction of French Creek (Schuylkill River tributary), French Creek an ...

. In 1868 Cope allocated the species to its own genus, ''Eupelor'', based on differences from ''Metoposaurus'' (then known as ''Metopias''). Colbert and Imbrie (1956) reviewed all Triassic metoposaurids and concluded that ''Eupelor'' should be used for all metoposaurids from North America, especially ''

Koskinonodon ''Anaschisma'' ("ripped up") is an extinct genus of large temnospondyls. These animals were part of the family called Metoposauridae, which filled the crocodile-like predatory Ecological niche, niches in the late Triassic. It had a large skull ab ...

'' (now known as '' Anaschisma''). The authors considered the trematosaur '' Calamops'' a possible synonym of ''Eupelor''. Later, Chowdbury (1965) subsumed ''Eupelor'' into ''Metoposaurus'' along with other North American metoposaurids. Hunt (1993), however, treated ''Eupelor'' as a dubious genus of metoposaurid due to its non-diagnostic nature.Hunt, A. P. (1993). "Revision of the Metoposauridae (Amphibia: Temnospondyli) and description of a new genus from Western North America". In: M. Morales (ed.) "Aspects of Mesozoic Geology and Paleontology of the Colorado Plateau". ''Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin''. 59: 67–97.

References

Triassic amphibians Prehistoric amphibian genera Trematosauria Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope {{temnospondyli-stub