Becklesius, Estes, 1983

Folie, Annelise & Codrea, Vlad, 2005, New lissamphibians and squamates from the Maastrichtian of Haţeg Basin, Romania, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50 (1), pp. 57-71 : 64

Becklesius cf. B. hoffstetteri

Fig. 3F .

Material.—PSMUBB V 365 (one incomplete left dentary).

Description.—The fragment found at Pui Islaz is 1.5 mm long and bears 3 loci ( Fig. 3F ). The only completely preserved tooth is lingually enlarged and passes the dental parapet on about the half of its height. The implantation is pleurodont. The tip of the crown is slightly curved lingually, chisel−like or truncated, and bears a narrow and slightly striated lingual cusp that is far from the middle of the crown. The lingual cusp extends on about 40% of the width of the labial cusp. The mesial crest is longer than the distal one and the angles between the lateral sides of the crown and the labial crests are not very acute (around 125 degrees for the mesial angle and 140 degrees for the distal one). The labial side of the bone is smooth and does not bear any foramen.

Discussion.—This specimen is identified as a dentary because a labiolingual concave facet (interpreted as the dorsal part of the Meckelian canal) is developed on its ventral side. It bears a chisel−shaped tooth with the mesial crest that is longer than the distal crest, the angles are pronounced and an additional lingual cusp is present. This dentary can therefore be attributed to the genus Becklesius (sensu Kosma 2003) . However, it significantly differs from other fossils from Pui Islaz referred to B. nopcsai sp. nov., because the tooth is proportionally shorter, the lingual cusp bears only a few striations and represents only about 40% of the width of the labial cusp, and the crown is more lingually curved and not square in outline. This specimen more closely resembles B. hoffstetteri ( Hoffstetter 1967: fig. 7C, C’, C’’; Seiffert 1973: figs. 16, 18); however, in B. hoffstetteri , the teeth are larger and the lingual cusp is more striated preventing the strict attribution of the described fragment from Pui Islaz to B. hoffstetteri . According to Seiffert (1973), posterior dentary teeth of B. hoffstetteri bear a cusp located in the middle of the tooth whereas this cusp is more displaced posteriorly on more anterior teeth. This observation indicates that PSMUBB V 365 seems to be the anterior part of a left dentary.

Figures

Fig. 3. A–E. Discoglossidae. A. PSMUBB V 356, cf. Eodiscoglossus sp., left ilium in lateral view. B, C. cf. Paradiscoglossus sp. B. PSMUBB V 357, great form, right ilium in lateral view. C. PSMUBB V 358, small form, left ilium in lateral view. D, E. Discoglossidae indet. D. PSMUBB V 353, urostyle in dorsal view. E. PSMUBB V 355 sacral vertebra in ventral view. F, G. Becklesius. F. PSMUBB V 365, B. cf. hoffstetteri, left dentary in lingual view. G. PSMUBB V 361, holotype of B. nopcsai sp. nov., fragment of left dentary (G1) and tooth crown (G2) in lingual view. SEM migrographs.