''Phanerosaurus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of diadectid reptiliomorph 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), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawano ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. Fossils are known from the Leukersdorf Formation near

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ...

. German

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer named the

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

''P. naumanni'' in 1860 on the basis of several sacral and presacral

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characterist ...

e. A second species, ''P. pungnax'', was named in 1882 but placed in its own genus '' Stephanospondylus'' in 1905.

Description

Like those of other diadectids, the vertebrae of ''Phanerosaurus'' are very wide. The

neural arch The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

es are very tall and extend beyond the centra with prominent zygapophyses projecting from either side. There are few distinctive features in the vertebrae of ''Phanerosaurus'' to distinguish it from other diadectids. One of the only unique characteristics are its shortened neural spines.

References

Diadectids Cisuralian tetrapods of Europe Permian Germany Fossils of Germany Fossil taxa described in 1860 Taxa named by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer {{Permian-animal-stub