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Abstract
The first occurrence of stereospondyl remains in the Santa Maria Formation (Middle/Upper Triassic) of the Paraná Basin is reported. The material is fragmentary but indicates the presence of large stereospondyls in the Carnian of this unit. The lack of informative characters is an obstacle, but the specimens probably belong to metoposaurids, trematosaurids or mastodonsauroids. Most South American reports of stereospondyls record fragmentary remains (except for the Argentinean chigutisaurids, and the Brazilian Australerpeton cosgriffi—a rhinesuchoid, and Sangaia lavinai—a rhytidosteid), and this situation constrains generalized attempts to understand their likely sequence of occupation in this part of Gondwana during the upper Palaeozoic and lower Mesozoic. Nevertheless, this new record is important, since it increases the representation of stereospondyls in southern Brazil. Moreover, it expands their biostratigraphic range in the Rosário do Sul Group.
Acknowledgements
SDS thanks the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico for financial support (CNPq Research Grant 500919/2009-7); Ana Maria Ribeiro and Jorge Ferigolo from the Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul for allowing the study of MCN PV 3498; the reviewers Anne Warren and Florian Witzmann for their suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript; Tomasz Sulej from the Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences for his suggestions on an early version of this manuscript; and Ana Luiza Ramos Ilha (undergraduate student) for technical support.
