Thuringothyris is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of Early Permian captorinid

Captorhinidae

Captorhinidae is one of the earliest and most basal reptile families.-Description:...

 known from the Free State of Thuringia of central Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Description

Thuringothyris is known from the holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 MNG 7729, articulate

Articulate

Articulate may refer to:*Articulate *Articulate sign*Articulate sound*Joint, also known as articulation*Word modified by an article...

d well-preserved skull

Skull

The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...

 and partial postcrania

Postcrania

Postcrania[p] in zoology and vertebrate paleontology refers to all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g...

l skeleton

Skeleton

The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...

, and from the referred specimens MNG 10652, poorly preserved skull and partial vertebral column, MNG 10647, disarticulated cranial and postcranial remains of at least four individuals, MNG 10183, slightly crushed skull and partial postcranial skeleton and MNG 11191, poorly preserved skull and partial limbs. All specimens were collected from the Tambach-Sandstein Member, the uppermost part of the Tambach Formation, dating to the Artinskian

Artinskian

In the geologic timescale, the Artinskian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian epoch or series. The Artinskian lasted between 284.4 ± 0.7 and 275.6 ± 0.7 million years ago...

 stage of the Late Cisuralian Series

Series (stratigraphy)

Series are subdivisions of rock layers made based on the age of the rock and corresponding to the dating system unit called an epoch, both being formally defined international conventions of the geological timescale. A series is therefore a sequence of rock depositions defining a...

 (or alternatively upper Rotliegend

Rotliegend

The Rotliegend or Rotliegendes is a lithostratigraphic unit of Cisuralian age that is found in the subsurface of large areas in western and central Europe. The Rotliegend mainly consists of sandstone layers...

), about 284-279.5 million years ago. They were found in the Bromacker Quarry, the middle part of the Thuringian Forest, near the village of Tambach-Dietharz

Tambach-Dietharz

Tambach-Dietharz is a town in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, 19 km south of Gotha.- Places of interest :...

.

Thuringothyris was originally thought to be protorothyridid

Protorothyrididae

Protorothyrididae is a family of small, lizard-like reptiles. Their skulls did not have fenestrae, as is also true of modern turtles and tortoises. Protorothyridids lived from the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian periods, in what is now North America. Many genera of primitive reptiles were...

. A redescription of all known Thuringothyris specimens by Johannes Müller, David S. Berman, Amy C. Henrici, Thomas Martens and Stuart S. Sumida in 2006 suggested that it is a sister taxon of Captorhinidae. A noval phylogenic study of primitive reptile relationships by Müller & Reisz in 2006 recovered Thuringothyris as a sister taxon of the Captorhinidae, and therefore, by definition, Thuringothyris represents the basalmost

Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group forms an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...

 known captorhinid. The same results were obtained in later phylogenic analyses.

Etymology

Thuringothyris was first named by Jürgen A. Boy and Thomas Martens in 1991

1991 in paleontology

-Birds:* Sankar Chatterjee's discovery of a possible Triassic bird, Protoavis, if genuine, would push avian origins back almost 70 million years. The find ignites controversy over the connection between dinosaurs and birds....

 and the type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 is Thuringothyris mahlendorffae. The generic name is named after its finding place Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

. The specific name honors Ursula R. Mahlendorf.