Cyclotosaurus buechneri is a species of the temnospondyl genus Cyclotosaurus from the Upper Triassic (middle Carnian) of northwestern Germany.[1]
| Cyclotosaurus buechneri Temporal range: Late Triassic,
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| Holotype skull | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Temnospondyli |
| Suborder: | †Stereospondyli |
| Clade: | †Capitosauria |
| Family: | †Mastodonsauridae |
| Genus: | †Cyclotosaurus |
| Species: | †C. buechneri
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| Binomial name | |
| †Cyclotosaurus buechneri Witzmann, Sachs & Nyhuis, 2016
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The type and only known specimen is a 28 cm long skull that was found in 1975 by Martin Büchner, the former director of the Natural History Museum Bielefeld, at a construction site in Bielefeld-Sieker, Germany. The specimen derives from the Stuttgart Formation and is kept in the collection of the Natural History Museum in Bielefeld. In 2016, Florian Witzmann, Sven Sachs and Christian Nyhuis provided a detailed description of the skull and established the new species, Cyclotosaurus buechneri, honoring the discoverer.
Cyclotosaurus buechneri differs from other species of Cyclotosaurus e.g. by a narrower distance between the orbitae, a more slender postorbital region and a distinct shape of the jugal. It was nearly 2 meter long and is the only unequivocal evidence of a cyclotosaur in northern Germany.[1]
Phylogeny edit
The phylogenetic position of C. buechneri within the genus Cyclotosaurus according to Witzmann et al.[1]
| Cyclotosaurus |
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References edit
- ^ a b c Witzmann, F.; Sachs, S.; Nyhuis, C.J. (2016). "A new species of Cyclotosaurus (Stereospondyli, Capitosauria) from the Late Triassic of Bielefeld, NW Germany, and the intrarelationships of the genus" (PDF). Fossil Record. 19: 83–100. doi:10.5194/fr-19-83-2016.
