''Palaeohatteria'' 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 basal

sphenacodont Sphenacodontia is a stem-based clade of derived synapsids. It was defined by Amson and Laurin (2011) as "the largest clade that includes '' Haptodus baylei'', '' Haptodus garnettensis'' and '' Sphenacodon ferox'', but not '' Edaphosaurus pogonia ...

s known from the

Early Permian 01 or 01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * '01 (Richard Müller album), ''01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * 01 (Urban Zakapa album), ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''01011 ...

period ( Sakmarian stage) of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It contains a single species, ''Palaeohatteria longicaudata''.

Discovery

''Palaeohatteria'' is based on very young individuals including

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

s and partial postcranial

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

s. All specimens were collected at Niederhäslich locality, in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, from the Niederhäslich Limestone Member of the Niederhäslich Formation, Rotliegend Group ( Döhlen Basin), dating to the Sakmarian stage of the

Cisuralian The Cisuralian, also known as the Early Permian, is the first series/epoch of the Permian. The Cisuralian was preceded by the Pennsylvanian and followed by the Guadalupian. The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the Ural Mou ...

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

, about 295.0 to 290.1 million years old.

Description

''Palaeohatteria'' was a fairly small synapsid, up to 60 cm in length and with a mass of about 3 kg. The affinities of ''Palaeohatteria'' to the

pelycosaur Pelycosaur ( ) is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term mammal-like reptile was used, and Pelycosauria was considered an order, but this is now thoug ...

were first described in details by Alfred Sherwood Romer and Llewellyn Price (1940). They revised the taxonomy of pelycosaurs and synonymized ''Palaeohatteria'' (alongside with '' Pantelosaurus'' and others) with '' Haptodus'', creating the new combination ''Haptodus longicaudata''. After describing a new species of ''Haptodus'' in 1977, Currie (1979) synonymized all European haptodontines, as well as ''

Cutleria wilmarthi ''Cutleria'' is an extinct genus of basal sphenacodontids or derived stem- sphenacodontoid known from the Early Permian period ( Sakmarian stage) of Colorado, United States. It contains a single species, ''Cutleria wilmarthi''. Discovery ''C ...

'', with the type of the genus, ''H. baylei''. Later, Laurin (1993 and 1994) considered Haptodontinae to represent a

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

grade of basal

s, and revalidated ''Palaeohatteria'' among other genera and species. His revision has been accepted since. Due to the early

ontological Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...

state of its remains, it is rarely included in

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analyses. However, it is well established that ''Palaeohatteria'' is closely related to " haptodontines" (= basal

s) like ''Pantelosaurus''. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below shows ''Palaeohatteria'' phylogenetic position among other sphenacodonts following Fröbisch ''et al.'' (2011). Spindler (2016) utilized use of the name Palaeohatteriidae for the clade comprising ''Palaeohatteria'' and ''Pantelosaurus''.Spindler, F. 2016. Morphological description and taxonomic status of ''Palaeohatteria'' and ''Pantelosaurus'' (Synapsida: Sphenacodontia). Freiberger Forschungshefte C550(23): 1–57. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321129043_Morphological_description_and_taxonomic_status_of_Palaeohatteria_and_Pantelosaurus_Synapsida_Sphenacodontia

Etymology

''Palaeohatteria'' was first described and named by Carl Friedrich Heinrich Credner in 1888 and the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is ''Palaeohatteria longicaudata''. The generic name is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

παλαιός (''palaios'') "old, ancient", and from '' Hatteria'', a proposed common name and generic name (like ''Rhynchocephalus'') to the

Tuatara The tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is actually the only extant member of a distinct lineage, the previously highly diverse order Rhynchocephal ...

(''Sphenodon punctatus''). Credner considered it to be an ancient relative of "''Hatteria''". Baur (1889), who considered the name ''Sphenodon'' to be valid for Tuatara (while "''Hatteria''" is a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

, as it is accepted today), claimed that the name ''Palaeohatteria'' should be also invalid. He proposed the name ''Palaeosphenodon'' (meaning "ancient ''Sphenodon''") to replace it, however his proposal was rejected. Hence, ''Palaeosphenodon'' is a junior synonym of ''Palaeohatteria''. The specific name is derived from

meaning "long-tailed" in reference to its relatively long tail.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7126420 Sphenacodontia Sakmarian genera Cisuralian synapsids of Europe Permian Germany Fossils of Germany Fossil taxa described in 1888 Taxa named by Carl Friedrich Heinrich Credner Cisuralian life Sakmarian life