A New Basal Salamandroid (Amphibia, Urodela) from the Late Jurassic of Qinglong, Hebei Province, China

A new salamandroid salamander, Qinglongtriton gangouensis (gen. et sp. nov.), is named and described based on 46 fossil specimens of juveniles and adults collected from the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) Tiaojishan Formation cropping out in Hebei Province, China. The new salamander displays several onto...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-05, Vol.11 (5), p.e0153834
Main Authors: Jia, Jia, Gao, Ke-Qin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Amphibia
Amphibians
Amphibians - classification
Animals
Biological Evolution
Biology and Life Sciences
Caudata
China
Cladistic analysis
Comparative studies
Earth Sciences
Evolution
Fossils
Geology
Jurassic
Light
Medicine and Health Sciences
Morphology
New species
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Proteidae
Reptiles & amphibians
Salamandridae
Siblings
Taxa
Teeth
Urodela
Urodela - classification
Vertebrates
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Summary:A new salamandroid salamander, Qinglongtriton gangouensis (gen. et sp. nov.), is named and described based on 46 fossil specimens of juveniles and adults collected from the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) Tiaojishan Formation cropping out in Hebei Province, China. The new salamander displays several ontogenetically and taxonomically significant features, most prominently the presence of a toothed palatine, toothed coronoid, and a unique pattern of the hyobranchium in adults. Comparative study of the new salamander with previously known fossil and extant salamandroids sheds new light on the early evolution of the Salamandroidea, the most species-diverse clade in the Urodela. Cladistic analysis places the new salamander as the sister taxon to Beiyanerpeton, and the two taxa together form the basalmost clade within the Salamandroidea. Along with recently reported Beiyanerpeton from the same geological formation in the neighboring Liaoning Province, the discovery of Qinglongtriton indicates that morphological disparity had been underway for the salamandroid clade by early Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) time.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0153834