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      Biostratigraphy of the Massospondylus Assemblage Zone (Stormberg Group, Karoo Supergroup), South Africa

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          Abstract

          The Massospondylus Assemblage Zone is the youngest tetrapod biozone in the Karoo Basin (upper Stormberg Group, Karoo Supergroup) and records one of the oldest dinosaur dominated ecosystems in southern Gondwana. Recent qualitative and quantitative investigations into the biostratigraphy of the lower and upper Elliot formations (lEF, uEF) and Clarens Formation in the main Karoo Basin resulted in the first biostratigraphic review of this stratigraphic interval in nearly four decades, allowing us to introduce a new biostratigraphic scheme, the Massospondylus Assemblage Zone (MAZ). The MAZ expands upon the Massospondylus Range Zone by including the crocodylomorph Protosuchus haughtoni and the ornithischian Lesothosaurus diagnosticus as two co-occurring index taxa alongside the main index taxon, the sauropodomorph Massospondylus carinatus. With a maximum thickness of ~320 m in the southeastern portion of the basin, our new biozone is contained within the uEF and Clarens formations (upper Stormberg Group), however, based on vertebrate ichnofossils evidence, it may potentially extend into the sedimentary units of the lowermost Drakensberg Group. We do not propose any further subdivisions, and do not consider the Tritylodon Acme Zone (TAZ) as a temporal biostratigraphic marker within the MAZ. The MAZ is currently accepted to range in age between the Hettangian and Pliensbachian, however a faunal turnover, which observes an increase in the diversity of dinosaur clades, crocodylomorph, and mammaliaform taxa in the lower uEF, could reflect effects of the end-Triassic extinction event (ETE).

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          The Dinosauria

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            The Karoo basins of south-central Africa

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              Molar occlusion in late triassic mammals.

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                South African Journal of Geology
                Geological Society of South Africa
                1996-8590
                1012-0750
                June 2020
                June 01 2020
                June 2020
                June 01 2020
                : 123
                : 2
                : 249-262
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60605, United States Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa e-mail: pviglietti@fieldmuseum.org
                [2 ]Departamento de Biologia, FFCLRP, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, 14040-901, Brazil Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3 Wits 2050, South Africa e-mail: blair.mcphee@gmail.com
                [3 ]Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa e-mail: emese.bordy@uct.ac.za
                [4 ]Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway and Auckland Park, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa e-mail: l.sciscio@gmail.com
                [5 ]Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3 Wits 2050, South Africa e-mail: p.barrett@nhm.ac.uk
                [6 ]Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3AN, United Kingdom Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3 Wits 2050, South Africa e-mail: roger.benson@earth.ox.ac.uk
                [7 ]Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom e-mail: s.wills@nhm.ac.uk
                [8 ]Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3 Wits 2050, South Africa e-mail: kimi.chapelle@gmail.com: dollman.kathleen@gmail.com: cnmdekazi@gmail.com
                [9 ]Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3 Wits 2050, South Africa e-mail: Jonah.Choiniere@wits.ac.za
                Article
                10.25131/sajg.123.0018
                d91e221c-95f1-461d-9437-ab6b6898716b
                © 2020
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