Re: JVP 25(3)

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> This paper presents new material of the Daohugou, Ningcheng salamander,
> *Jeholotriton paradoxus* [...] The palate is extensive and
> the maxilla tiny and underformed for it's size and skeletal development,

Sounds like it's typical for neotenic salamanders.

> the likely prokinetic skull articulations (my opinion on the kinesis).

Skull kinesis in a salamander? I guess the skull is simply so poorly 
ossified that many fontanelles are wide open and some bones missing 
altogether (is there a quadrate?).

>   The impressions show that this salamander really is cute. The authors
> also refer it to crown Urodela within Caudata, but no other clade is
> specified (or "family") to contain it.

So they don't even put it in Cryptobranchoidea?

> the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation

Assuming that that one is Middle Jurassic. It may not be.

S. E. Evans, C. Lally, D. C. Chure, A. Elder & J. A. Maisano: A Late 
Jurassic salamander (Amphibia: Caudata) from the Morrison Formation of 
North America, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 143, 599 -- 616 
(2005)

says (p. 614):

"However, there are again concerns with respect to the age of the 
Jiulongshan Formation (Zhonghe Zhou & Yuan Wang, pers. comm. to Evans, 
September 2003), and the beds may be considerably younger than Middle 
Jurassic."

We'll see.

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