A long-snouted trematosaurid amphibian from the Early Triassic of South Africa

A new temnospondyl amphibian find from the Early Triassic Lystrosaurus Asse mblage Zone of the Beaufort Group (Karoo Basin) represents the first undoub ted occurrence of a long-snouted trematosaurid in South Africa. Its discove ry confirms the presence of trematosaurids In the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Z one and brings to three the number of diagnostic trematosaurid taxa in the Beaufort Group, which were previously known only from short-snouted taxa, T he presence of a derived, long-snouted trematosaurid in basal Triassic rock s of the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone, and that of apparently more primitiv e short-snouted trematosaurids in the overlying Cynognathus Assemblage Zone , follows the trend seen elsewhere in Pangaea in which the highly specializ ed long-snouted trematosaurid taxa appear earlier in the fossil record.