Anomoiodon liliensterni F. Huene, 1939

Sues, Hans-Dieter & Schoch, Rainer R., 2025, Synopsis of the Triassic reptiles from Germany, Fossil Record 28 (2), pp. 411-483 : 411-483

Anomoiodon liliensterni F. Huene, 1939

Holotype.

MB.R.3539B , partial skull and postcranial skeleton preserved as a natural mold.

Paratype.

MB.R.3539A , partial skeleton preserved as natural mold on the same block of matrix as the holotype and adjacent to it.

Type locality.

Reurieht near Hildburghausen, Thuringia.

Type horizon.

Chirotheriensandstein, upper part of Solling Formation, Middle Buntsandstein Subgroup. Age: Middle Triassic (Anisian: Aegean).

Diagnosis.

Distinguished by the following features: dentary with anterior four teeth increasing in height and size posteriorly up to fifth tooth, which is almost twice as tall as the fourth; and sixth tooth with greatest labiolingual width, slightly shorter than the fifth ( Säilä 2008).

Comments.

Using high-fidelity silicon-rubber casts, Säilä (2008) provided the first detailed description of the two skeletons, which were preserved together in what was possibly a burrow. Her phylogenetic analysis recovered Anomoiodon as the sister-taxon of Kapes Ivakhnenko, 1975 from the Yarenskian gorizont (Olenekian) of the Komi Republic in Russia and from the Helsby Sandstone Formation (Anisian) of southwestern England. Both taxa share the presence of a posteromedial process on the anterodorsal region of the prefrontal that extends toward but does not reach the midline. They also resemble each other in the posteriorly increasing height and width of the dentary teeth. Spencer and Storrs (2002) suggested that Anomoiodon is possibly a subjective senior synonym of Kapes .

Ortlam (1967) named a second species, Anomoiodon krejcii , based on a poorly preserved left dentary ( SMNK -PAL 76049 ) from an Upper Buntsandstein horizon exposed at a construction site in Pfalzgrafenweiler near Freudenstadt, Baden-Württemberg. He distinguished Anomoiodon krejcii from the type species by the presence of six teeth (rather than five as Huene had originally claimed for Anomoiodon liliensterni ) and a decrease in size from the anterior to the posterior teeth rather than vice versa. Given the poor quality of preservation of the holotype and absence of diagnostic features, we consider Anomoiodon krejcii a nomen dubium.

References.

Huene (1939), Ortlam (1967), Säilä (2008).