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A Late Campanian sphenodontid (Reptilia, Diapsida) from northern Patagonia

Sebastián APESTEGUÍA

en Comptes Rendus Palevol 4 (8) - Pages 663-669

Published on 31 December 2005

The fossil record of sphenodontids in the Southern Hemisphere is much longer than in Laurasia, where they became extinct after Early Cretaceous times. Recent works demonstrated the persistence of at least eilenodontine sphenodontids until the ‘mid’-Cretaceous of Patagonia. Focused examination of the Los Alamitos Formation collections provided remains of Late Campanian sphenodontids. Although the phylogenetic position of these remains is still uncertain, they belong to a new, unrecorded species of sphenodontid perhaps related to opisthodontians or primitive, toothed sapheosaurs.


Keywords:

Late Cretaceous, Sphenodontid, Gondwana, Patagonia

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