Substantiation of validity of the Late Permian genus Weigeltisaurus Kuhn, 1939 (Reptilia, Weigeltisauridae)

Abstract

© 2015, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. The previously rejected genus of Permian gliding diapsids Weigeltisaurus Kuhn, 1939 is actually valid. The skull morphology of Weigeltisaurus is reassessed based on the holotype of the type species W. jaekeli (specimen SSWG, no. 113/7). The genus Weigeltisaurus differs from the Gondwanian genus Coelurosauravus in the reduced infraorbital part of the jugal, the round contour of the posterior part of the orbit, the wider postorbital regions of the postorbital and jugal, the concave external surface of these elements, the shape and arrangement of ornamental structures on the elements forming the orbit, the flattened crowns of jaw teeth in the middle part of the maxilla, the rhomboid shape of the neural spines of the posterior cervical vertebrae, and other characters. The majority of the above features also distinguish Weigeltisaurus from the East European genus Rautiania.