Kallimodon is a genus of Sphenodontia from the Late Jurassic of Bavaria, southern Germany.
Systematics
Kallimodon was originally described as a species of
Homoeosaurus by Karl von Zittel in 1887. However, in 1963 it was renamed
Kallimodon due to differences from the
Homoeosaurus type species.
[Cocude-Michel M. 1963. Les Rhynchocéphales et les Sauriens des Calcaires lithographiques (Jurassique supérieur) d’Europe occidentale.– Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Lyon 7: 1–187.] In 1997,
Kallimodon was sunk as a junior synonym of
Leptosaurus, with the type species referred to as
L. pulchellus.
[S. Renesto and G. Viohl. 1997. A sphenodontid (Reptilia, Diapsida) from the late Kimmeridgian of Schamhaupten (Southern Franconian Alb, Bavaria, Germany). Archaeopteryx 15:27-46] However, subsequent studies find
Kallimodon to be valid and distinct from
Leptosaurus, being closely related to
Sapheosaurus. One specimen previously referred to this genus is actually a distinct taxon.
[Rauhut O. W. M., Heyng A. M., López-Arbarello A. & Hecker A. (2012): A new rhynchocephalian from the Late Jurassic of Germany with a dentition that is unique amongst tetrapods. PLoS ONE 7: e46839.][Oliver W. M. Rauhut & Adriana López-Arbarello (2015) Zur Taxonomie der Brückenechse aus dem oberen Jura von Schamhaupten. On Archaeopteryx
]
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