NH L. D. BOONSTRA THE RUSSIAN DINOCEPHALIAN DEUTEROSAURUS September 1965 September Volume 48 Band Part 12 Deel ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM ANNALE VAN DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE MUSEUM Cape Town Kaapstad The ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM are issued in parts at irregular intervals as material becomes available Obtainable from the South African Museum, P.O. Box 61, Cape Town (Cash with order, post free) Die ANNALE VAN DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE MUSEUM word uitgegee in dele op ongereelde tye na beskikbaarheid van stof Verkrygbaar van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum, Posbus 61, Kaapstad (Kontant met bestelling, posvry) OUT OF PRINT/UIT DRUK I, 2(1; 3, 5, 7-8), 3(1-2; 5, t-pi.), 5(2, 5, 7-9); 6Ge i at:=p.1). 7(1, 3) 5 Osi (l—2)) 5) OUI 3) 5 I1(I-2, 7, t—p.i.), 21, 24(2), 31(1-3), 44(4). Price of this part/ Prys van hierdie deel 15C Printed in South Africa by In Suid-Afrika gedruk deur The Rustica Press Pty., Ltd., Die Rustica-pers Edms., Bpk., Court Road, Wynberg, Cape Courtweg, Wynberg, Kaap THE RUSSIAN DINOCEPHALIAN DEUTEROSAURUS By L. D. BoonstRA South African Museum, Cape Town CONTENTS PAGE Introduction . ; a Oe) Deuterosaurus . 3 233 Mnemetosaurus . : : 235 Summary : l Pe 296 Acknowledgements . a 29 © References : : i) -BIXO) INTRODUCTION In recent compilative publications in English, German, French and Russian the compilers Romer, von Huene, Piveteau and Orlov, in following the latest views of our Russian colleagues Efremov and Orlov, have added the weight of their authority to perpetuate some rather serious mistakes. I have, during a four weeks’ stay in Moscow, had the opportunity of study- nig the dinocephalian material housed in the Palaeontological Museum of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. and feel that a preliminary note pointing out these errors would be welcomed by those who have not had the opportunity of seeing the material for themselves. DEUTEROSAURUS Orlov in 1954 gave a full account of all the material he considered warran- ted inclusion under the appellation Deuterosaurus. This material consists of parts of two skulls, teeth and many postcranial bones of which there is little evidence of having been found in association. In fact, except in the case of some postcranial bones, there is definite evidence that they were not found in association. These separate finds have on various grounds been considered to belong to one and the same genus. This lumping together started on its false course seriously when Seeley in 1894 described specimen No. 2 and identified it as a second specimen referable to Eichwald’s type (No. 1) of Deuterosaurus and produced a composite drawing of a skull in which the type lower jaw, teeth and partial occiput were fitted to the distorted partial skull of No. 2 and associated with this some vertebrae, a femur, a radius, part of a humerus and scapula and parts of the pelvis. Eichwald’s type specimen (No. 1) consists of a lower jaw from which the nature of the incisors, canines and postcanines as well as that of the upper incisors and canines can be determined and fitting on to this are the posterior part of the lower jaw, suspensorium, parts of the occiput, braincase and subtemporal and suborbital arches. 233 Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 48 (12), 1965: 233-236. 234 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM This specimen (No. 1) constitutes the type of Eichwald’s Deuterosaurus biarmicus. The Diagnostic Characters of the Genus DEUTEROSAURUS: 1. Dentalformula: i SiWer pe caine 4 I 6+? 2. Incisors and canines of the upper and lower jaws intermesh. 3. Lower canine passes outward of upper jaw margin. 4. Incisors fairly long, with slight lingual step, unequally developed in the different teeth and separated from the talon. 5. Postcanines with bulbous spatulate crown; series short, probably not more than 8. 6. Quadratojugal no longer a bone of the outer lateral surface. 7. Quadrate posteriorly situated and lower jaw long. 8. No boss on the angular. g. Slight indication of upward sweep of the premaxillaries. o. Snout probably higher than broad. 1. Infra-temporal bar fairly weak with deep temporal fossa. Taxonomic Position of DEUTEROSAURUS: It is evident that the type is poor and important diagnostic features are not preserved. Of the determinable characters none are typically tapinocephalian, but rather represent a mixture of anteosaurian and titanosuchian features. The anteosaurian features are: the short series of bulbously spatulate postcanine teeth; the fairly long incisors, but the lingual step is more pronounced than is usual in the better known anteosaurians: the medial shift of the quadratojugal, which is no longer a lateral surface bone; the slight upward sweep of the alveolar border of the premaxillaries; the snout probably higher than broad; the weak infra-temporal bar and deep temporal fossa. The titanosuchian features are: the intermeshing of the upper and lower canines with the lower canine passing outside the upper jaw; the absence of the angular boss and the general little pachyostosis. I would thus place Deuterosaurus in a separate family —Deuterosauridae— in the Infra-order Anteosauria. Postcranial Bones referred to DEUTEROSAURUS: The femur is represented by a number of specimens (Nos. 59, 13, 1/1326, 294/20, 72). All indicate a slender curved femur quite distinct from the femur of both Tapinocephalia and Titanosuchia, but strikingly similar to the few known femora of the South African Anteosauria. THE RUSSIAN DINOCEPHALIAN DEUTEROSAURUS 235 If the type jaws of Deuterosaurus are, as I am convinced, anteosaurian and the femora also anteosaurian it may very well be that the above specimens are correctly referred to Deuterosaurus, but they could equally well be referred to one or other of the other known Russian anteosaurians as e.g. Titanophoneus, Doliosauriscus, Syodon, Admetophoneus. The distal end of a humerus (No. 33) and the tibia (No. 86) also appear to be anteosaurian. MNEMEIOSAURUS Specimen No. 2, which Seeley (1894) mistakenly referred to Eichwald’s Deuterosaurus, consists of an incomplete and distorted skull from which few diagnostic features can be determined. Diagnostic Characters of the Genus MNEMEIOSAURUS : G I 1+ ? meeWentaliormulas 7 —) | ¢— > pe —— 2. Crown of postcanine tooth spatulate. 3. Intertemporal width small, with high and sharp parietal crest flanked by the postorbital. 4. Anterior to the temporal fossa proper there is a sloping surface, below the level of the dorsal surface proper, which is formed by the postfrontal, frontal and postorbital (cf. Phthinosuchus). Pachyostosis moderate. Skull and particularly the snout, high and apparently short. Orbit large. Postorbital bar slender, but forming a wide flange of bone forming the posterior bony face of the orbit (cf. Phthinosuchus). g. Vomers narrow, choanae short. 10. Pineal canal of moderate length. 11. Lacrimal with antero-dorsally directed process as in Ulemosaurus. 12. Vomers narrow and vaulted as in primitive gorgonopsians (Phthinosuchus) , but posteriorly spatulate. Mnemeiosaurus, on the scanty evidence, is difficult to place taxonomically, but is probably a tapinocephalian as suggested by Nopcsa. The presence of a canine indicates a primitive form but otherwise it appears quite specialised. Provisionally it may be placed with the moschopids, where a form like Avenantia also has a narrow intertemporal region. COM DEN Teeth referred to DEUTEROSAURUS: The teeth numbered No. 3, 4 and 5 and figured by Efremov (figs. 19, 20, 21) were not found in association with either specimens No. 1 or No. 2. _ They are quite distinct from the incompletely preserved incisors of the type of Deuterosaurus (No. 1) and no comparison is possible with the one incisor root preserved in Mnemezosaurus (No. 2). 236 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM The teeth in Deuterosaurus (No. 1) are slightly modified anteosaurian teeth. Tooth No. 4 approaches most nearly to the incisor teeth of the Tapino- cephalidae. Teeth No. 3 and No. 4 may very well be of a form very close to Ulemosaurus. The incisor teeth hitherto considered as deuterosaurian are thus really typical of the Tapinocephalia and the real deuterosaurian incisors are really anteosaurian incisors. SUMMARY The Russian dinocephalian Deuterosaurus, is discussed after study of the material in Moscow and it is shown that some material has been erroneously included in this genus. It is considered that the type species, Deuterosaurus biarmicus Eichwald should be placed in the family Deuterosauridae, in the infra-order Anteosauria. Mnemeiosaurus, which was referred to Deuterosaurus, appears to be a tapinocephalian which might be placed provisionally with the moschopids. The true affinities of postcranial bones and teeth that had been referred to Deuterosaurus are considered. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author’s visit to Moscow was in part made possible by a special grant from the Department of Education, Arts and Science of the Government of the Republic of South Africa. In Moscow my work was greatly facilitated by the kind helpfulness of my colleagues Orlov, Tchudinov, Shishkin and Tatarinov. To them my sincerest thanks. The Trustees of the South African Museum are grateful to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for a grant to publish this paper. REFERENCES Boonstra, L. D. 1954. The cranial structure of the titanosuchian Anteosaurus. Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 42: 108-148. Boonstra, L. D. 1957. The moschopid skulls in the South African Museum. Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 44: 15-38. Erremovy, I. A. 1954. [Fauna of terrestrial vertebrates in the Permian cuprous sandstones of the western part of the Ural Mountains regions.] Trud. Paleont. Inst., Akad Nauk SSSR 54: 1-416 (In Russian). EicHwaLp, E. von. 1848. Ueber die Saurier des kupferfiihrenden Zechsteins Russlands. Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou 21 (2): 136-204. Nopcsa, F. 1928. Palaeontological notes on reptiles. Geol. hung. (Palaeont.) x (1): 1-84. SEELEY, H. G. 1894. Researches on the structure, organization and classification of the fossil Reptilia. VIII. Further evidences of the skeleton in Deuterosaurus and Rhopalodon from the Permian rocks of Russia. Phil. Trans. (B) 185: 663-717. INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS “ MANUSCRIPTS In duplicate (one set of illustrations), type-written, double spaced with good margins, including TABLE oF CoNTENTs and Summary. Position of text-figures and tables must be indicated. ILLUSTRATIONS So proportioned that when reduced they will occupy not more than 4? in. x 7 in. (73 in. including the caption). A scale (metric) must appear with all photographs. REFERENCES Authors’ names and dates of publication given in text; full references at end of paper in alphabetical order of authors’ names (Harvard system). References at end of paper must be given in this order: Name of author, in capitals, followed by initials; names of joint authors connected by &, not ‘and’. 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Articles and recommendations of the International code of zoological nomenclature adopted by the XV International congress of zoology, London, July 1958, are to be observed (particularly articles 22 and 51). Examples: Plonia capensis Smith, 1954: 86, pl. 27, fig. 3. Green, 1955: 23, fig. 2. When transferred to another genus: Euplonia capensis (Smith) Brown, 1955: 259. When misidentified as another species: Plonia natalensis (non West), Jones, 1956: 18. When another species has been called by the same name: [non] Plonia capensis: Jones, 1957: 27 (= natalensis West). “Wii 3 9088 01206 5918