{{Short description|Extinct genus of reptiles}} {{Automatic taxobox | taxon = Thelephon | fossil_range = Middle Triassic, {{fossil_range|245|241}} | authority = Modesto & Damiani, 2003 | type_species = {{extinct}}'''''Thelephon contritus''''' | type_species_authority = (Gow, 1977a [originally ''Thelegnathus contritus'']) }}
{{distinguish|Telephone}}
'''''Thelephon''''' is an extinct genus of procolophonine procolophonid parareptile from middle Triassic (early Anisian stage) deposits of Free State Province, South Africa. It is known from the holotype BP/1/3512, a partial skull lacking the snout and anterior third of the mandible. It was collected by the South African palaeontologist, James W. Kitching from Hugoskop in the Winnaarsbaken and referred to subzone B of the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Burgersdorp Formation, Beaufort Group (Karoo Basin). It was first named by Sean P. Modesto and Ross J. Damiani in 2003 and the type species is ''Thelephon contritus''. It was first assigned to a species of ''Thelegnathus'' (now considered to be a ''nomen dubium''), ''Thelegnathus contritus''.<ref name=ThelegnathusND>{{cite journal |author1=Sean P. Modesto |author2=Ross J. Damiani |year=2003 |title=Taxonomic status of ''Thelegnathus browni'' Broom, a procolophonid reptile from the South African Triassic |journal=Annals of Carnegie Museum |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=53–64 |doi=10.5962/p.215088 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=Thelegnathus>{{cite journal |author=C. E. Gow |year=1977 |title=New Procolophonids from the Triassic ''Cynognathus'' Zone of South Africa |journal=Annals of the South African Museum |volume=72 |issue=6 |pages=109–124 }}</ref>
== Palaeobiology ==
=== Palaeoecology === ''Thelephon'' likely fed on crayfish, as demonstrated by palaeoichnological evidence of procolophonids digging up ''Reniformichnus'' burrows in the Burgersdorp Formation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wolvaardt |first1=Frederik P. |last2=Smith |first2=Roger M.H. |last3=Hancox |first3=P. John |last4=Browning |first4=Claire |last5=Strong |first5=Michael |date=May 2026 |title=Palaeoenvironmental significance of vertebrate and invertebrate burrow casts in the Middle Triassic Burgersdorp Formation of the main Karoo Basin |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464343X26000567 |journal=Journal of African Earth Sciences |language=en |volume=237 |article-number=106048 |doi=10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2026.106048 |access-date=7 March 2026 |via=Elsevier Science Direct|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Parareptilia|Procolophonoidea}} {{Portal bar|Paleontology}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q7781016}}
Category:Procolophoninae Category:Middle Triassic reptiles of Africa Category:Fossil taxa described in 2003 Category:Anisian life Category:Prehistoric reptile genera
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