Anura indet.

(Fig. 10)

DESCRIPTION

Despite a swampy paleoenvironment that might be suitable for their occurrence and preservation, anurans are relatively scarce among the microvertebrate material from Angeac-Charente. In Angeac-Charente, anurans are represented by isolated, fragmentary bones, such as fused zeugopods (Fig. 10A, B) and urostyles (Fig. 10C, D)

Among fused zeugopods, some are sufficiently well preserved to allow their identification.For instance, the general shape and length (even if the proximal part is missing) of specimen ANG M-63 (Fig. 10A, B), as well as several other features, allow its identification as a tibiofibula (Thomas 1996): presence of a tibiofibular groove, deeper on the anterior face, between the fused zeugopod, and presence of a tibial crest on the anterior face (Fig. 10A). Among well-known Early Cretaceous anuran families are the Alytidae (= “ Discoglossidae ”), but within this family, the tibia and fibula remain unfused (Roček 2000), unlike the Angeac-Charente specimen.

The specimen ANG M-64 (Fig. 10C, D) bears two broad and flattened articular facets anteriorly, and a small crest arises from its dorsal face. Four weakly marked ridges can be seen alongside this small crest, two on each side (Fig. 9C). This morphology identifies it as a urostyle. To date, incompleteness of the material limits comparisons with other Mesozoic anurans.