Konkasaurus (scincoid lizard, Late Cretaceous, Madagascar) redescribed + Apateon (temnospondyl, Early Permian, Germany) redescribed (free pdfs)
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Ben Creisler
Aug 9, 2026, 11:39:04 AM (4 days ago) Aug 9
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Ben Creisler
Recent papers:
Free pdf:
Edward L Stanley, Kelsey L Fenner, Juan D Daza, Matthew P Heinicke, J Salvador Arias & David W Krause (2026)
New insights into the phylogenetic position and palaeobiogeography of Konkasaurus mahalana (Squamata: Scincoidea) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 207(4): zlag122
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlag122
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/207/4/zlag122/8756977
Konkasaurus mahalana is a Late Cretaceous Madagascan lizard, tentatively assigned to the family Cordylidae based mainly on mandibular and osteoderm morphology, although its fragmentary nature meant that its evolutionary affinities were never tested in a phylogenetic framework. As the oldest known Gondwanan scincoid and, possibly, the earliest crown-group cordyliform, Konkasaurus has been widely used as a calibration point in squamate evolutionary studies, despite this phylogenetic uncertainty. This study re-examines the holotype and new material using microcomputed tomography, allowing new skeletal elements to be reconstructed digitally and scored for phylogenetic and quantitative analyses. We incorporated Konkasaurus into a large morphological–molecular dataset and compared its osteoderm and mandibular shape with a broad sample of living scincoids using morphometrics. Our phylogenetic and morphometric results consistently support Konkasaurus as a gerrhosaurid and, specifically, place it within the Madagascan subfamily Zonosaurinae. Reclassifying Konkasaurus as a crown-group gerrhosaurid has major biogeographical implications. It extends the minimum age of the gerrhosaurid radiation back to the Late Cretaceous and implies that the family colonized Madagascar once, before 66 Mya. This is significantly later than the break-up of Gondwana and supports a hypothesis of over-water dispersal, making Konkasaurus the earliest known terrestrial vertebrate colonizer of Madagascar from Africa.
Edward L Stanley, Kelsey L Fenner, Juan D Daza, Matthew P Heinicke, J Salvador Arias & David W Krause (2026)
New insights into the phylogenetic position and palaeobiogeography of Konkasaurus mahalana (Squamata: Scincoidea) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 207(4): zlag122
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlag122
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/207/4/zlag122/8756977
Konkasaurus mahalana is a Late Cretaceous Madagascan lizard, tentatively assigned to the family Cordylidae based mainly on mandibular and osteoderm morphology, although its fragmentary nature meant that its evolutionary affinities were never tested in a phylogenetic framework. As the oldest known Gondwanan scincoid and, possibly, the earliest crown-group cordyliform, Konkasaurus has been widely used as a calibration point in squamate evolutionary studies, despite this phylogenetic uncertainty. This study re-examines the holotype and new material using microcomputed tomography, allowing new skeletal elements to be reconstructed digitally and scored for phylogenetic and quantitative analyses. We incorporated Konkasaurus into a large morphological–molecular dataset and compared its osteoderm and mandibular shape with a broad sample of living scincoids using morphometrics. Our phylogenetic and morphometric results consistently support Konkasaurus as a gerrhosaurid and, specifically, place it within the Madagascan subfamily Zonosaurinae. Reclassifying Konkasaurus as a crown-group gerrhosaurid has major biogeographical implications. It extends the minimum age of the gerrhosaurid radiation back to the Late Cretaceous and implies that the family colonized Madagascar once, before 66 Mya. This is significantly later than the break-up of Gondwana and supports a hypothesis of over-water dispersal, making Konkasaurus the earliest known terrestrial vertebrate colonizer of Madagascar from Africa.
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Free pdf:
Rainer R. Schoch, Morgan Proust, and Eudald Mujal (2026)
The branchiosaurid temnospondyl Apateon caducus from the Early Permian of Germany
Palaeodiversity 19(1): 91-112
doi: https://doi.org/10.18476/pale.v19.a4
https://bioone.org/journals/Palaeodiversity/volume-19/issue-1/pale.v19.a4/The-branchiosaurid-temnospondyl-Apateon-caducus-from-the-Early-Permian-of/10.18476/pale.v19.a4.full
The small, gill-bearing branchiosaurids were the most abundant tetrapods in the Late Palaeozoic of Europe. Other than its mostly microvorous relatives, the 12-cm-long Apateon caducus (v. Ammon 1889) was a small predator in some of the nutrient-rich lakes of the Saar-Nahe Basin in Western Germany. This is the first survey of the entire material which accumulated in the last 130 years. The sample includes 221 specimens from nine different black shale deposits, and it covers a size range from 2 to 33 mm skull length. Unlike often co-occurring Apateon pedestris, A. caducus developed stronger, conical teeth and a firmly sutured upper jaw at smaller size. Gut contents evidence that it fed on small branchiosaurid larvae, most often plankton-feeding Apateon pedestris. In the studied rock sequence, slight morphological differences are recognized from oldest to youngest, and as far as they are consistent, suggest minor evolutionary changes.
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