Abstract

A collaborative field work program in the Triassic of Tanzania and Zambia has produced a plethora of new fossil material. Parareptiles, however, are rare, with only one procolophonoid specimen found to date. In 2012, a new procolophonid parareptile, Mandaphon nadra, gen. et sp. nov., was discovered. The single specimen, consisting of a skull and partial postcranium, displays the autapomorphy of two raised, lozenge-shaped bosses on the quadratojugal. Whereas the posterior maxillary teeth are small, labiolingually expanded, and vaguely bicuspid, the premaxillary teeth are much larger and conical, a trait more commonly found in leptopleuronine procolophonids. The large, lozenge-shaped bosses on the quadratojugal do not correspond to additional ossification in other areas in the skull. In a phylogenetic analysis of procolophonoid relationships consisting of 59 characters and 28 procolophonoid taxa, Mandaphon appears within a poorly supported but monophyletic Leptopleuroninae, the first of this clade found in Africa. The presence of Mandaphon along with the procolophonoid Ruhuhuaria in the Manda Beds is only the third known co-occurrence of members of these two groups, with most non-procolophonid procolophonoids restricted to the Permian and Early Triassic.