Weigeltisaurus jaekeli
Weigeltisaurus is an extinct genus of weigeltisaurid reptile from the Late Permian Kupferschiefer of Germany and Marl Slate of England. It has a single species, originally named as Palaechamaeleo jaekeli in 1930 and later assigned the name Weigeltisaurus jaekeli in 1939, when it was revealed that Palaeochamaeleo was a preoccupied name. A 1987 review by Evans and Haubold later lumped Weigeltisaurus jaekeli under Coelurosauravus as a second species of that genus. A 2015 reassessment of skull morphology study substantiated the validity of Weigeltisaurus and subsequent authors have used this genus. Like other weigeltisaurids, it possessed long rod-like bones that radiated from the trunk that were likely used to support membranes used for gliding, similar to extant Draco lizards.

Adam C. Pritchard, Hans-Dieter Sues, Diane Scott, Robert R. Reisz · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- WeigeltisaurusPBDB
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Weigeltisaurus
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At most 5.8 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 259.857 Mya and 254.14 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
7 occurrences of Weigeltisaurus jaekeli on record, most of them in the Permian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
7 occurrences- Permian100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
- Werra Formation · Zechstein Group6
- Marl Slate Formation · Zechstein Group1
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The named rock units Weigeltisaurus jaekeli has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Weigeltisaurus jaekeli and its relatives
PermianWhere Weigeltisaurus jaekeli and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.
Found in the same rock
3 taxa- Coelurosauravus1 site
- Glaurung schneideri1 site
- Protorosaurus speneri1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Weigeltisaurus jaekeli, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
6 references- Zwei Reptilneufunde (Weigeltisaurus KUHN [?], Lepidosauria [?], Reptilia) aus dem Kupferschiefer von Richelsdorf (Perm, Hessen)2
- Gliding Mechanism in the Late Permian Reptile Coelurosauravus1
- The gliding reptiles of the Upper Permian1
- Bemerkungen zu einem Neufund von Weigeltisaurus jaekeli (Weigelt) im nordhessischen Kupferschiefer. [Notes on a new discovery of Weigeltisurus jaekeli (Weigelt) in the Copper Shale of Northern Hesse]1
- The gliding reptiles of the Upper Permian1
- Über die vermutliche Nahrung von Protorosaurus und über einen körperlich erhaltenen Fruchtstand von Archaeopodocarpus germanicus aut. [On the probable diet of Protorosaurus and on a bodily preserved infructescence of Archaeopodocarpus germanicus aut.]1
Each of the 7 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Weigeltisaurus jaekeli
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Adam C. Pritchard, Hans-Dieter Sues, Diane Scott, Robert R. Reisz
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Weigeltisaurus jaekeli was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itWeigeltisaurus through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Weigelt 1930)