Datheosaurus ("Dathe's lizard") is an extinct genus of Caseasauria. It was at least in length. It lived during the Latest Carboniferous to Early Permian in Poland. It was named for Ernst Dathe (1845–1917), the German geologist who first announced the fossil find.
Discovery and history
It was originally described in 1905 on a basis of a specimen from late Carboniferous deposits in Poland.
[H. Schroeder. 1905. Datheosaurus macrourus nov. gen. nov. sp. aus dem Rotliegenden von Neurode. Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Geologischen Landesanstalt und Bergakademie 25(2):282-294 [1]] It was later considered a synonym of
Haptodus by several authors, but subsequent examination has found it be a caseid rather a sphenacodont.
This was confirmed by cladistic analysis, which recovered
Datheosaurus as a basal
caseid
