Jonkeria

Jonkeria
Temporal range: Capitanian, 265–260 Ma
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Jonkeria truculenta skull, Amer. Mus. No. 5608 (holotype of J. ingens)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Suborder: †Dinocephalia
Family: †Titanosuchidae
Genus: †Jonkeria
Van Hoepen, 1916
Species:
†J. truculenta
Binomial name
†Jonkeria truculenta
Van Hoepen, 1916[1]
Synonyms[2]
Genus synonymy
  • Dinophoneus Broom, 1923
  • Dinosphageus Broom, 1929
  • Phoneosuchus Broom, 1929
Species synonymy
  • Dinophoneus ingens Broom, 1923
  • Dinosphageus haughtoni Broom, 1929
  • Jonkeria crassus Broom, 1929
  • Jonkeria pugnax Broom, 1929
  • Jonkeria vanderblyi Broom, 1929
  • Phoneosuchus angusticeps Broom, 1929
  • Jonkeria ingens Boonstra, 1935
  • Jonkeria angusticeps Boonstra, 1953
  • Jonkeria haughtoni Boonstra, 1953
  • Jonkeria parva Boonstra, 1955
  • Jonkeria rossouwi Boonstra, 1955
  • Jonkeria boonstraii Janensch, 1959

Jonkeria is an extinct genus of dinocephalians. Jonkeria was a large and omnivorous[3] animal, from the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone, Lower Beaufort Group, of the South African Karoo.

Description

Life restoration of Jonkeria truculenta
Skull of Jonkeria truculenta in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

The overall length was 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) or more (up to 4 or 5 metres (13.1 or 16.4 ft)), the skull about 55 cm long. The skull is nearly twice as long as wide, and the snout is elongated and provided with sharp incisors and large canines. The cheek teeth were small. The body is robustly built, and the limbs stout. Jonkeria cannot be distinguished from its relative Titanosuchus on cranial grounds, but only in limb length; Jonkeria having short and squat limbs, and Titanosuchus long ones.[4][2]

The limb and rib bones of Jonkeria display thickened bone walls and infilling of the medullary cavity with bone tissue. This is similar to the bone structure of the modern hippopotamus and the extinct aquatic reptile Claudiosaurus, and implies that, like them, Jonkeria was semiaquatic.[3] The long rostrum of Jonkeria was well-innervated and sensitive, possibly to detect changes in pressure underwater.[5] Young Jonkeria individuals grew rapidly, similarly to endothermic animals, whereas adults experienced cyclical growth rates.[3]

Evidence of femoral osteomyelitis has been described in a fossilised specimen of Jonkeria. The authors attributed the cause of the pathology, characterised by bony spicules growing perpendicular to nonpathological fibrolamellar bone tissue, to a bacterial infection resulting from an attack by a predator, as evidenced by puncture marks on the femur.[6]

Discovery

The holotype specimen, TM 212, was collected in 1916 from the Abrahamskraal farm in the Prince Albert Local Municipality in South Africa.[1][2] It is currently located in the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History.

Classification

Life restoration of Jonkeria truculenta

About a dozen species have been named, including the type species, J. truculenta. At least some of the other species were synonymised by Boonstra 1969,[4] and the remaining species were synonymized into J. truculenta in 2024.[2]

The cladogram below depicts the results of a phylogenetic analysis of a selection of dinocephalians representing the various recognised subgroups, including Jonkeria, performed by Fraser-King et al. (2019). Under their results and systematic terminology, Jonkeria was found to be a tapinocephalian closer to tapinocephalids than are Styracocephalus and Estemmenosuchus. The cladogram below is simplified from their full analysis, focused only on the relationships of dinocephalians.[7]

Dinocephalia

See also

References

  1. ^ a b van Hoepen, E.C.N. (1916). "A new Karroo reptile". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 5 (3): 1.
  2. ^ a b c d Jirah, Sifelani; Rubidge, Bruce S.; Abdala, Fernando (11 June 2024). "Cranial morphology of Jonkeria truculenta (Therapsida, Dinocephalia) and a taxonomic reassessment of the family Titanosuchidae". Palaeontologia africana. 58: 1–27. ISSN 2410-4418.
  3. ^ a b c Bhat, Mohd Shafi; Shelton, Christen D.; Chinsamy, Anusuya (15 October 2021). "Bone histology of the graviportal dinocephalian therapsid Jonkeria from the middle Permian Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone of the Karoo Basin of South Africa" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 66 (4): 705–721. doi:10.4202/app.00872.2021.
  4. ^ a b Boonstra, Lieuwe Dirk (1969). "The fauna of the Tapinocephalus Zone (Beaufort Beds of the Karoo)". Annals of the South African Museum. 56 (1): 1–73.
  5. ^ Benoit, Julien; Norton, Luke A.; Jirah, Sifelani (5 June 2023). "The maxillary canal of the tianosuchid Jonkeria (Synapsida, Dinocephalia)" (PDF). The Science of Nature. 110 27. doi:10.1007/s00114-023-01853-w.
  6. ^ Shelton, Christen D.; Chinsamy, Anusuya; Rothschild, Bruce M. (25 December 2017). "Osteomyelitis in a 265-million-year-old titanosuchid (Dinocephalia, Therapsida)". Historical Biology. 31 (8): 1093–1096. doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1419348. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  7. ^ Fraser-King, S. W.; Benoit, J.; Day, M. O.; Rubidge, B. S. (2019). "Cranial morphology and phylogenetic relationship of the enigmatic dinocephalian Styracocephalus platyrhynchus from the Karoo Supergroup, South Africa". Palaeontologia Africana. 54: 14–29. hdl:10539/28128.
  • Colbert, E. H., (1969), Evolution of the Vertebrates, John Wiley & Sons Inc (2nd ed.)
  • von Zittel, K.A (1932), Textbook of Paleontology, C.R. Eastman (transl. and ed), 2nd edition, Macmillan & Co. vol.2, p. 255