First African record of micromelerpetid amphibians (Temnospondyli, Dissorophoidea)

Abstract

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Recent fieldwork in late Carboniferous (Kasimovian) continental sediments of the Souss Basin, south-central Morocco, yielded two skeletons of small branchiosaur-like micromelerpetids. It is the first record of this European dissorophoid temnospondyl family in Africa and the stratigraphically oldest record of tetrapods in the Maghreb. The Moroccan micromelerpetid skeletons are assigned to the new species Branchierpeton saberi which is specifically unique by five cranial characters combined with a distinct shape of humerus and interclavicle. The new African micromelerpetid suggests that long-distance migration in the late Paleozoic Variscan mountain belt was possible even for small, mainly aquatic temnospondyls. The new Branchierpeton species might be of biostratigraphic value as a Kasimovian index fossil.