Pangerpeton Temporal range: Middle or Late Jurassic, 164 Ma |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Urodela |
Suborder: | Cryptobranchoidea |
Genus: |
†Pangerpeton Wang & Evans, 2006 |
Type species | |
†Pangerpeton sinensis Wang & Evans, 2006 |
Pangerpeton is an extinct genus of salamanders. Its monotypic species is Pangerpeton sinensis.
Pangerpeton is a metamorphosed, primitive salamander from the Late Jurassic Daohugou fossil bed near Wubaiding Village of Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province, China.
Yuan Wang and Susan E. Evans (2006) named this new taxon with a phylogenetic analysis of caudates at familial level including fossil taxa, such as Marmorerpeton, Karaurus, Jeholotriton, Chunerpeton, Liaoxitriton, Iridotriton, and Valdotriton. The analysis placed Pangerpeton as a sister taxon to Jeholotriton from the equivalent fossil bed, and the two are close to the base of crown−group Urodela either just outside it or just within.
This Jurassic amphibian is characterized by its short trunk (only 14 presacrals) and short and wide head, giving a fat body shape, from which the genus name was derived ("Pang" means fat in Chinese).