title: Permian tetrapods from the Sahara show climate-controlled endemism in Pangaea.
abstract: New fossils from the Upper Permian Moradi Formation of northern Niger provide an insight into the faunas that inhabited low-latitude, xeric environments near the end of the Palaeozoic era (approximately 251 million years ago). We describe here two new temnospondyl amphibians, the cochleosaurid Nigerpeton ricqlesi gen. et sp. nov. and the stem edopoid Saharastega moradiensis gen. et sp. nov., as relicts of Carboniferous lineages that diverged 40-90 million years earlier. Coupled with a scarcity of therapsids, the new finds suggest that faunas from the poorly sampled xeric belt that straddled the Equator during the Permian period differed markedly from well-sampled faunas that dominated tropical-to-temperate zones to the north and south. Our results show that long-standing theories of Late Permian faunal homogeneity are probably oversimplified as the result of uneven latitudinal sampling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, New York 11568, USA. casidor@nyit.edu
authors.forename: Christian A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Sidor
authors.forename: F Robin
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: O'Keefe
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Damiani
authors.forename: J Sébastien
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Steyer
authors.forename: Roger M H
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Hans C E
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Sereno
authors.forename: Oumarou
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ide
authors.forename: Abdoulaye
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maga
mesh_terms: D000663:Amphibians / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003889:Desert Climate; D005580:Fossils; D049690:History, Ancient; D009548:Niger; D010802:Phylogeny; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology