Eunotosaurus

Eunotosaurus
Temporal range: Middle Permian,
Fossil specimen, on display at
Karoo National Park
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Reptiliomorpha
Clade: Amniota
Clade: Sauropsida
Genus: Eunotosaurus
Seeley, 1892
Species:
E. africanus
Binomial name
Eunotosaurus africanus
Seeley, 1892

Eunotosaurus (Latin: Stout-backed lizard) is an extinct genus of amniote, possibly a close relative of turtles. Eunotosaurus lived in the late Middle Permian (Capitanian stage) and fossils can be found in the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa. Eunotosaurus resided in the swamps of southern Africa. Its ribs were wide and flat, forming broad plates similar to a primitive turtle shell, and the vertebrae were nearly identical to those of some turtles. Accordingly, it is often considered as a possible transitional fossil between turtles and their prehistoric ancestors. However, it is possible that these turtle-like features evolved independently of the same features in turtles, since other anatomical studies and phylogenetic analyses suggest that Eunotosaurus may instead have been a parareptile, an early-diverging neodiapsid unrelated to turtles, or a synapsid.

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