Svrchnepaleozoicti obojzivelnici boskovicke brazdy ve sbirkovem materialu Chlupacova muzea historie Zeme

The history of research of the Upper Paleozoic amphibians from the Boskovice Graben at the Faculty of Charles University in Prague has a long tradition. The studies go back to the late 19th century when the first papers on amphibians in the area of Boskovice graben were published by A. Makowsky (1876). A. Frič (1883) was also marginally interested in this area, but whose main concern were amphibians from the West Bohemian, Central Bohemian and Sudeten basins. In the early 20^th century, it was mainly Augusta (1936) and Stehlík (1924), and then in the postwar period Z. V. Špinar (1952) who dealt with the amphibians.
Z. Roček (1988) to some extent also investigated these vertebrates, while recently J. Klembara (1997) from Slovakia studied the Upper Paleozoic amphibians from the Boskovice Graben. Over 3,000 of these poikilotherm vertebrates are deposited in the collection of Chlupáč’s Museum of Earth’s History at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, and the present inventory includes 3,237 catalogued specimens. More amphibians are expected to be stored at other parts of the Faculty building, and are expected to be picked up to enrich this collection. The majority of amphibians were collected in the field during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Most of the collected specimens come from the surroundings of Bačov, but some also from the vicinity of Letovice, namely from the localities of Trávník, Kochov and Drválovice or from Malá Lhota, Obora and Jabloňany. However, this localization is very general and inaccurate, because it is not exactly known how much and what of this material comes from which part of the site or individual outcrops. This material includes the Letovice Formation, which is of Permian age.
Carbonization is the dominant process of preserving the remains of amphibians, which are clearly distinguishable from the surrounding rocks. Part of the fossils is phosphatized, so it is possible to separate chemically the skeletal remains from the rock. This kind of conservation is also best suited for the determination of individual species, since the phosphatized individuals are best visible to study their diagnostic features. The last types of preservation process are imprints of the bones in the rock.
Altogether 170 individuals were selected of the total of 3,237 catalogued specimens. These were previously determined basing on the diagnostic features set by Klembara (1997), and reclassified. Moreover, the DL (skull length) parameter, including the length of the nasal, frontal, parietal and postparietal bones, were measured. According to this parameter, ontogenetic stages were defined, and the mortality at metamorphic stage was established accordingly. Individuals of juvenile or post-metamorphic stage are rare.

References

Augusta, J. (1936): Krytolebci ze spodního permu Boskovické brázdy na Moravě. - Práce Geol.-paleont. Úst. Univ. Karl. Praha.

Frič, A. (1883): Fauna der Gaskohle und der Kalksteine der Performation Böhmens: Veröffentlicht mit Subvention der Kais (Vol. 1). - In Commission bei F. Řivnáč.

Klembara, J. (1997): The cranial anatomy of Discosauricsus Kuhn, a seymouriamorph tetrapod from the Lower Permian of the Boskovice Furrow (Czech Republic). - Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London B: Biol. Sci. 352(1351), 257-302.View article

Krejčí, M. (2016): Svrchnopaleozoičtí obojživelníci boskovické brázdy ve sbírkovém materiálu Chlupáčova muzea. Diplom. práce. - Přírodověd. fak. Univ. Karl. Praha.

Makowsky, A. (1876): Ueber einen neuen Labyrinthodonten „Archegosaurus austriacus nov. spec.“ - Sitz.-Ber. Akad. Wiss. (Wien) 73, 155-166.

Roček, Z. (1988): List of fossil Amphibians od Czechoslovakia. - Acta zool. cracov. 31, 19, 513-540.

Stehlík, A. (1924): Nové nálezy Stegocephalů z moravského permu a příspěvek k poznání Stegocephalů nýřanských. - Práce Mor. přírodověd. Společ. 1, 4, 201-293.

Špinar, V. Z. (1952): Revise některých moravských diskosauriscidů (Labyrinthodontia). - Rozpr. Ústř. Úst. geol. 15, 160 str.