Stereosternum Temporal range: Cisuralian
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Fossil in Naturmuseum Senckenberg | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | †Parareptilia |
Order: | †Mesosauria |
Family: | †Mesosauridae |
Genus: | †Stereosternum Cope, 1885 |
Type species | |
†Stereosternum tumidum Cope, 1885[1]
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Synonyms | |
Mesosaurus tumidum (Cope, 1885) |
Stereosternum tumidum (meaning "rigid chest") (Stereos, Greek: “solid, firm”; Sternon, Greek: “chest, breastbone”) [2] is an extinct genus of mesosaur marine reptile from the Early Permian of Brazil and also the Great Karoo Basin of South Africa.[3] The taxon mesosaur is a monophyletic group containing Brazilosaurus sanpauloensis and Mesosaurus tenuidens.
For most of the 20th century, information of Stereosternum was reported as Mesosaurus.[4] Unlike previous interpretations of Mesosaurs as filter feeding animals, later studies have shown that these animals were very much active aquatic predators.[5] Stereosternum and Mesosaurus are the oldest reported reptile species to have had a range spanning two present-day continents, then joined as Gondwana and they represent the first record of reptile species shared by both Southern Africa and South America.[3]
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