Reappraisal of ‘Metoposaurus hoffmani’ Dutuit, 1978, and description of new temnospondyl specimens from the Middle–Late Triassic of Madagascar (Morondava Basin)

ABSTRACT

Temnospondyls from the Middle–Late Triassic of Madagascar are problematic and scarce: ‘Metoposaurus hoffmani’ was erected on the basis of poor material, and this taxon has never been revised. Other remains were also reported and assigned to Temnospondyli indet., but they have never been described, nor figured. Here, we (re)describe in detail this historical material from the Folakara area of Madagascar (Isalo Group, Morondava Basin): the specimens include cranial and postcranial remains, most of them being referred to Metoposauridae indet. and a few to Stereospondyli indet. We also confirm that ‘M. hoffmani’ is a nomen dubium owing to the absence of any clear autapomorphy of the fragmentary type material. The material referred here to Metoposauridae indet. is incorporated in an updated paleobiogeographic analysis of the group: interestingly, it suggests a connection with Indian metoposaurids during the Late Triassic.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

J.F. acknowledges the support of the postdoctoral grant ‘Beatriu de Pinós’ 2014-BP-A 00048 (Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca), the CERCA Programme (Generalitat de Catalunya) and the research project CGL2017-82654-P, financed by Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion and the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union (AEI/FEDER EU), and the Catalan Research Group 2017 SGR 86. We thank G. Clément (MNHN, Paris) for authorization to study the material. We thank the MESR (‘Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche’) for the doctoral grant (to T.A.), which supported this research. Access to the material, photographs, archives/collections, discussion, and fruitful information provided by D. Germain (MNHN), C. Sagne (MNHN), J.-M. Pacaud (MNHN), L. Rozada (MNHN), F. Clarac (MNHN), R. Allain (MNHN), N.-E. Jalil (MNHN), L. Cazes (MNHN), P. Loubry (MNHN), D. Konietzko-Meier (Opole University), D. Sengupta (Indian Statistical Institute), and M. Vilalta (Institut Català de Paleontologia) are appreciated and were very useful. Editor J. Fröbisch and reviewers B. Gee and T. Sulej made constructive suggestions that improved the manuscript.

ORCID

Josep Fortuny http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4282-1619

Thomas Arbez http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7080-3269

Eudald Mujal http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6310-323X