File talk:Alopecognathus angusticeps DB.jpg

Species ID

The description of this image originally identified it as Pristerognathus vanderbyli, a name which turns up few scholarly results and is often not included in recent literature. An unpublished thesis from 1987 by Van den Heever[1] performed a major taxonomic revision of many early therocephalians, and concluded that the type and only specimen of P. vanderbyli (also referred to Pristerognathoides in some literature) was referable to Glanosuchus macrops, and the name "Pristerognathus vanderbyli" invalid. Although this thesis was never published it has been cited in therocephalian literature since, including a review of holotype specimens named by Broom[2], wherein it follows Van den Heever (1987) and synonymise P. vanderbyli with G. major. The taxonomy of Van den Heever seems to have largely been sustained by later authors to my knowledge, and certainly at the least P. vanderbyli does not appear to be acknowledged in recent papers. Hence, I find it pertinent to refer to this image as an illustration of Glanosuchus and not Pristerognathus. --DrawingDinosaurs (talk) 00:42, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

Update 2023: Another revision, published in Palaeontologia africana 56: 51–87 (2023) by C. E. Kammerer concludes that Alopecognathus angusticeps Broom 1915, put into synonymy with Glanosuchus macrops Broom 1904 by Van den Heever (1987) as well, is indeed a valid taxon. Furthermore, Kammerer (2023) concluded that the the type and only specimen of Pristerognatus vanderbyli Broom 1925 is not referrable to G. macrops, but to A. angusticeps. Would have been nice, if this information was provided by the person who changed the name in the file description and/or the person who proposed the file renaming, so I wouldn't have to do the research by myself. Just saying… --Gretarsson (talk) 09:48, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Well, the synonymy was both noted in the parenthesis and in the English Wikipedia article with a source, of course a bonus that the citation was added here now. FunkMonk (talk) 16:07, 5 August 2023 (UTC)