Psephoderma alpinum Meyer, 1858

Holotype.

SNSB-BSPG AS I 8, carapace.

Type locality.

Winkelmoos Alm, southwest of Ruhpolding, Bavaria.

Type horizon.

Kössen Formation. Age: Late Triassic (late Norian-Rhaetian).

Diagnosis.

Distinguished by the following combination of features of the dermal armor: Carapace with three longitudinal ridges, one dorsomedial and two dorsolateral ones, which are composed of enlarged and distinctly keeled or tubercle-like osteoderms (Rieppel 2002 a).

Comments.

Several excellently preserved specimens from the middle to upper Norian Calcare de Zorzino in northern Italy have fully documented the skeletal structure of Psephoderma alpinum (Pinna and Nosotti 1989; Renesto and Tintori 1995; Rieppel 2001 a). Broili (1921) described a small partial cranium (SNSB-BSPG 1921 I 3) from the Kössen Formation of Kothalpe at the Wendelstein in the Bavarian Alps as “ Placochelys alpis sordidae. ” Rieppel (2000) considered it likely that this specimen can be assigned to Psephoderma but treated the binomen as a nomen dubium. Pinna (1976) and Rieppel (2000) noted that a fragment of a palate (SNSB-BSPG AS I 1457) from the Kössen Formation at the Plankensteinsattel (Tegernsee) in the Bavarian Alps, which Oswald (1930) named Placochelys stoppanii, can be referred to Psephoderma.

References.

Meyer (1858), Broili (1921), Oswald (1930), F. Huene (1936), Westphal (1975), Pinna (1976), Pinna and Nosotti (1989), Renesto and Tintori (1995), Rieppel (2000, 2001 a, 2002 a).