''Sophineta'' 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

lepidosauromorph Lepidosauromorpha (in PhyloCode known as Pan-Lepidosauria) is a group of reptiles comprising all diapsids closer to lizards than to archosaurs (which include crocodiles and birds). The only living sub-group is the Lepidosauria, which contains two ...

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

known from the

Early Triassic The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between 251.9 Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which ...

(late

Olenekian In the geologic timescale, the Olenekian is an age (geology), age in the Early Triassic epoch (geology), epoch; in chronostratigraphy, it is a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Lower Triassic series (stratigraphy), series. It spans the time betw ...

age) of Małopolska Province, southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It contains a single species, ''Sophineta cracoviensis''.

Discovery

''Sophineta'' was first described and named by

Susan E. Evans Susan Elizabeth Evans is a British palaeontologist and herpetologist. She is the author or co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She received a BSc in Zoology at Bedford College (London), Bedford College in 1974, and i ...

and Magdalena Borsuk−Białynicka in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, 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 ''Sophineta cracoviensis''. It is known from

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

ZPAL RV/175, a nearly complete right

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

. Many isolated or associated skull and postcranial fragments are referred to the species, representing frontals, parietals, prefrontal, postfrontals, postorbitals, jugals, squamosals, pterygoids, quadrates, maxillae, premaxilla, dentaries, vertebrae and ilia. ''Sophineta'' fossils were discovered ''in situ'' and collected in 1982 by a team (Paszkowski and Wieczorek) from the Institute of Geological Sciences of Jagiellonian University in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. They were collected from the Czatkowice 1 locality, a single exposure near Kraków from which a diverse fauna of small vertebrates is known. It represents Triassic karst deposits which developed in Early Carboniferous (Tournaisian to Mid Visean) limestone which is now mined at the

Czatkowice quarry Czatkowice may refer to: *Czatkowice, Lesser Poland Voivodeship in Gmina Krzeszowice, in Kraków County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship (S Poland) *Czatkowice, Lower Silesian Voivodeship in Gmina Milicz, Milicz County in Lower Silesian Voivodeship (SW Po ...

. The locality dates to the earliest Late

stage of the

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

, about 247.3

million years ago Million years ago, abbreviated as Mya, Myr (megayear) or Ma (megaannum), is a unit of time equal to (i.e. years), or approximately 31.6 teraseconds. Usage Myr is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used w ...

. ''Sophineta'' is the smaller of the two lepidosauromorph reptiles known from the Czatkowice quarry, alongside the larger kuehneosaurid '' Pamelina''. Czatkowice 1 material was transferred to and stored at the Museum of the Earth and Institute of Paleobiology of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. Preliminary chemical preparation in

acetic acid Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main compone ...

was initially performed, before effective preparation started in the 1990s until 2007.

Etymology

The generic name honors Professor

Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska Zofia Emilia Kielan-Jaworowska (25 April 1925 – 13 March 2015) was a Polish paleobiologist. In the mid-1960s, she led a series of Polish-Mongolian paleontological expeditions to the Gobi Desert. She was the first woman to serve on the executi ...

of the Instytut Paleobiologii PAN, and it 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 ...

''sophia'', meaning "wisdom" which is the classical root of the name Zofia. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

is derived from ''Cracovia'', the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name for

, the closest major Polish city to the Czatkowice 1 locality (the type locality of ''Sophineta''). It is also honors researchers at the University of Kraków for their work at the locality.

Description

''Sophineta'' differs from all kuehneosaurs and ''

Marmoretta ''Marmoretta'' is an extinct genus of small lepidosauromorph reptile known from the Middle-Late Jurassic of Britain and Portugal. The genus contains two species, ''M. oxoniensis'' and ''M. drescherae''. Discovery and naming ''Marmoretta'' is k ...

'' in having short

vertebrae Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

bearing

notochord The notochord is an elastic, rod-like structure found in chordates. In vertebrates the notochord is an embryonic structure that disintegrates, as the vertebrae develop, to become the nucleus pulposus in the intervertebral discs of the verteb ...

pits while lacking

transverse processes Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

. It also has

pleurodont Pleurodont is a form of tooth implantation common in reptiles of the order Squamata, as well as in at least one temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 've ...

teeth, rather than subthecodont teeth like in all kuehneosaurs. Other differences are the presence of paired rather than confluent nares, the presence of weakly developed zygosphenoidal articulations on the vertebrae, and compressed keeled tooth tips rather than simple cones. It differs from the '' Paliguana'' in having a deeper facial process on the

and a much smaller lacrimal, and from ''Marmoretta'' in that the latter has a specialised maxillary/

premaxillary The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammals has ...

overlap. ''Sophineta'' resembles lepidosaurs in having weak zygosphenes, short vertebrae and single−headed

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs () are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the thoracic cavity, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ...

s throughout the column, but differs in having a shallower pleurodont tooth implantation and the apparent absence of both a thyroid fenestra and functional caudal autotomy. ''Sophineta'' had an unspecialised vertebral column but fairly derived skull structure, including the tall facial process of the maxilla, reduced lacrimal and pleurodonty. These traits also resemble those of early lepidosaurs more than stem−lepidosaurs. The

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 ...

of ''Sophineta'' reconstructed as a "modified diapsid skull" with a relatively short preorbital region. The orbits, narial openings and upper

temporal fenestrae Temporal fenestrae are openings in the temporal region of the skull of some amniotes, behind the orbit (eye socket). These openings have historically been used to track the evolution and affinities of reptiles. Temporal fenestrae are commonly ( ...

are large, and the lower temporal fenestrae are open ventrally. Based on the dimensions of the ZPAL RV/175 and skull proportions in ''Marmoretta'', its total skull length is estimated to be about , with a body length (excluding the tail) of about .

Classification

Susan E. Evans and Magdalena Borsuk−Białynicka (2009) performed a

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 ...

analysis that recovered ''Sophineta'' as the sister group of

Lepidosauria The Lepidosauria (, from Greek meaning ''scaled lizards'') is a Order (biology), superorder or Class (biology), subclass of reptiles, containing the orders Squamata and Rhynchocephalia. Squamata also includes Lizard, lizards and Snake, snakes. Sq ...

. The inclusion of ''Sophineta'' displaced the relictual

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...

'' and gave the origin of Lepidosauria a much older age. 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 follows their results.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7563102 Lepidosauromorpha Prehistoric reptile genera Early Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2009 Taxa named by Susan E. Evans