SPECIATION ALONG RIFTING CONTINENTAL MARGINS - A NEW NOTHOSAUR FROM THE NEGEV (ISRAEL)

Middle Triassic Muschelkalk deposits in the Negev (Israel) yielded two endemic species of the sauropterygian reptile genus Nothosaurus, one of which is new. These two species of nothosaurs from the Nahal Ramon Basin provide evidence for cladogenesis in a newly opened habitat with resource partitioning between the daughter species. The two Nahal Ram on species are sister-taxa, and jointly they form the sister-clade of Nothosaurus mirabilis from the Germanic Muschelkalk. Cladistic analysi s of nothosaur interrelationships supports the hypothesis of a Burgund y Gate, linking the Germanic Basin with the developing Neotethys durin g late Anisian and Ladinian times.