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Henodus skull and other placodont fossils from Upper Triassic of Portugal (free pdf)
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Ben Creisler
Mar 11, 2025, 11:36:09 AM (7 days ago) Mar 11
to DinosaurMa...@googlegroups.com
Ben Creisler
A new paper:
Maciej Ruciński, Hugo Campos, Octávio Mateus & Ingmar Werneburg (2025)
Novel record of placodont remains including a Henodus cranium from the Upper Triassic Silves Group of the Algarve, southern Portugal
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: e2460445
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2025.2460445
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2025.2460445
Free pdf:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/02724634.2025.2460445
Recent fieldwork in the Upper Triassic deposits of the Silves Group in the Algarve, southern Portugal revealed novel cyamodontid placodont material. The collection includes a partial skull and numerous isolated armor plates from four localities in Silves and Loulé municipalities. The skull shows a strong affinity to henodontid placodonts, especially to Henodus chelyops from Tübingen-Lustnau in Germany. It shares features such as a rectangular outline of the cranium, occurrence of a broad spatulate rostrum, and toothless maxillae with curved longitudinally extending grooves. The only unambiguous difference observed pertains to the more robust and convex snout shape of the new specimen. Based on these multiple similarities, the specimen is identified as Henodus sp., but poor preservation prevents species-level identification. The new specimen from Portugal represents the second record of Henodus and illustrates a wider geographic distribution of that genus, extending beyond the Germanic Basin and reaching coastal areas near the westernmost branch of the Neotethys. The age of the deposits where the cranium was found is not well-established but refers to a time interval within the upper Carnian–Rhaetian, suggesting the specimen may be younger than other henodontid records. The novel Henodus material found in the continental, but likely the near-coastal depositional setting, concurs with the known records of brackish to the freshwater habitat of the other henodontid placodonts. The occurrence of abundant armor plates assigned to Cyamodontidae at multiple sites and stratigraphic horizons indicates that placodonts were common in the south Iberian margin.
Free pdf:
Maciej Ruciński, Hugo Campos, Octávio Mateus & Ingmar Werneburg (2025)
Novel record of placodont remains including a Henodus cranium from the Upper Triassic Silves Group of the Algarve, southern Portugal
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: e2460445
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2025.2460445
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2025.2460445
Free pdf:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/02724634.2025.2460445
Recent fieldwork in the Upper Triassic deposits of the Silves Group in the Algarve, southern Portugal revealed novel cyamodontid placodont material. The collection includes a partial skull and numerous isolated armor plates from four localities in Silves and Loulé municipalities. The skull shows a strong affinity to henodontid placodonts, especially to Henodus chelyops from Tübingen-Lustnau in Germany. It shares features such as a rectangular outline of the cranium, occurrence of a broad spatulate rostrum, and toothless maxillae with curved longitudinally extending grooves. The only unambiguous difference observed pertains to the more robust and convex snout shape of the new specimen. Based on these multiple similarities, the specimen is identified as Henodus sp., but poor preservation prevents species-level identification. The new specimen from Portugal represents the second record of Henodus and illustrates a wider geographic distribution of that genus, extending beyond the Germanic Basin and reaching coastal areas near the westernmost branch of the Neotethys. The age of the deposits where the cranium was found is not well-established but refers to a time interval within the upper Carnian–Rhaetian, suggesting the specimen may be younger than other henodontid records. The novel Henodus material found in the continental, but likely the near-coastal depositional setting, concurs with the known records of brackish to the freshwater habitat of the other henodontid placodonts. The occurrence of abundant armor plates assigned to Cyamodontidae at multiple sites and stratigraphic horizons indicates that placodonts were common in the south Iberian margin.
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