ProgPal 2025 abstracts: Butterworth on Elginia

‘The last of the pareiasaurs; the spiny-headed Elginia’
Catherine Butterworth – University of Bristol wrote:

“Pareiasaurs were medium to large-sized herbivorous parareptiles from the mid to late Permian, characterised by heavy dermal armouring and unique cheek ornamentations”

Adding taxa makes the traditional clade “Parareptilia” disperse = not monophyletic largely because it includes dissimilar and unrelated taxa, like mesosaurs and pareiasaurs. But if you are a student at the U of Bristol and want to receive a passing grade or a degree, you have to follow and support this professional mistake ensconced in textbooks.

“Despite being widespread and abundant, they went extinct 252 million years ago in the Permian-Triassic extinction event.

Correction: Turtles are living pareiasaurs in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa).

“One of the last of their clade was Elginia mirabilis, which was discovered in 1892 in the Cutties Hillock Sandstone, Elgin, Scotland. The holotype was a jawless skull, preserved as a rock mould that was later filled in with plaster; currently held in the British Geological Society, Edinburgh.”

See figure 1.

“Since its first description in 1893, new specimens have been found and these can supplement knowledge of its anatomy, including knowledge of the postcranial skeleton.”

Not all that much knowledge (see Fig 2).

“The Elginia fossils are natural moulds in the rock, so CT scanning is not as helpful as photogrammetry on the moulds and solid casts, and this was the source of our 3D models. Our phylogenetic analysis confirmed E. mirabilis as a derived pareiasaur, its closest relation being E. wuyongae from China.”

See figure 2.

“By the latest Permian, pareiasaurs had diversified worldwide, and ranged from the 1-tonne Scutosaurus in Russia to the much smaller Elginia and relatives. Elginia is famous for its remarkable array of cranial protrusions, but their function is uncertain, whether used mainly in display or defence. However, drawing comparisons across predator tactics across the Permian and changes in Pareiasaur armouring we suggest that Elginia’s increased spinosity and dermal armour could have been a beneficial defence strategy against late Permian predators.”

Author Butterworth did not consider turtles with horns, like Meiolania (Fig 1).

Author Butterworth brings nothing new to the study of Elginia, but that’s okay. Students have to start somewhere. We all need to be able to defend our theses.

The LRT nested Elginia with hardshell turtles in 2014 in a 3-part series. See below.

These are the sorts of phylogenetic vacuums
left by Academia that are readily filled by the LRT, which minimizes taxon exclusion simply by adding taxa and letting the software tell you recognized and unrecognized interrelationships.

The LRT covers more taxa,
discovers omitted interrelationships and corrects errors without professorial intervention and in a timely manner. This is only possible because paleontology is the most accessible science, with amateurs (including children) able to make contributions. AND the Internet makes data available immediately, for free, worldwide.

Build your own LRT and let’s compare results.

References
Butterworth C 2025. The last of the pareiasaurs; the spiny-headed Elginia. Progressive Palaentology 2025 Edinburgh June 17–20 Abstract Booklet.

Progressive Palaeontology (ProgPal) is an annual conference organised by students for students, and is supported by the Palaeontological Association. This year we are excited to host ProgPal 2025 in the beautiful city of Edinburgh!

Another turtle with teeth, Elginia – part 3

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/06/22/progpal-2025-abstracts-butterworth-on-elginia/