Earlier we looked at the FMNH UC 1528 specimen of Youngoides romeri. Today we’ll see another view of the same specimen in a GIF movie (Fig. 1). The antorbital fenestra identified here has been overlooked for several decades.
Figure 1. GIF movie tracing the antorbital fenestra with fossa and surround bones of the FMNH UC 1528 specimen of Youngoides romeri. This is one of the earliest and most primitive appearances of the archosauriform antorbital fenestra, previously overlooked.
Youngoides romeri FMNH UC1528 (Olson and Broom 1937) Late Permian, Wuchiapingian, ~255 mya was derived from a sister to Youngina AMNH 5561 and preceded Proterosuchus at the base of the Eurchosauriformes.
This nesting of Youngina and Youngoides at the base of the Protorosauria and Archosauriformes is recovered in the large reptile tree. Prior studies tended to include squamates close to this node, but the large reptile tree found squamates nesting on a completely separate branch with a last common ancestor at the origin of the Amniota/Reptilia.
References
Olson EC and Broom R 1937. New genera and species of tetrapods from the Karroo Beds of South Africa. Journal of Paleontology 11(7):613-619
