1ST RECORD OF THE EARLY MESOZOIC SPHENODONTIAN CLEVOSAURUS (LEPIDOSAURIA, RHYNCHOCEPHALIA) FROM THE SOUTHERN-HEMISPHERE

An incomplete skull of a small sphenodontian lepidosaur from the upper part of the Stormberg Group of southern Africa is referable to Clevos aurus Swinton, 1939. It is most closely related to C. bairdi from the McCoy Brook Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Nova Scotia (Canada) and C. mcgilli from the Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Ju rassic) of Yunnan (China). The new specimen is important because it re presents the first record of Clevosaurus from the Southern Hemisphere. Like many other taxa of Early Jurassic continental tetrapods (crocody lomorph archosaurs, dinosaurs, synapsids), Clevosaurus had an apparent ly Pangaen distribution.