The vertebrate fauna of the Upper Permian of Niger – VIII. Nigerpeton ricqlesi (Temnospondyli: Cochleosauridae) and tetrapod biogeographic provinces

The Moradi Formation of northern Niger preserves a rare glimpse of tetrapods inhabiting the low paleolatitude regions of Pangea during Late Permian times. In contrast to the broadly distributed and dicynodont-dominated Karoo fauna known from southern Pangea (e.g., South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi), recent work has shown that (1) Moradi tetrapods are endemic, and (2) the taxonomic composition of the Moradi fauna is unlike that of any...