Discovery of discosauriscid seymouriamorhs (Tetrapoda) in the middle Permian of European Russia

A new species of discosauriscid seymouriamorphs, Ariekanerpeton kuedensis sp. nov., is described based on the skull of a larval individual from the Klyuchiki locality, Perm Region, Russia. The new form differs from the type species of Ariekanerpeton, A. sigalovi (Tatarinov, 1968), in the structure of the occipital and suborbital regions the skull roof, as well as in the mandible. The specimen from Klyuchiki extends the stratigraphic distribution of the family Discosauriscidae up to the Upper Ufimian–Kazanian of the middle Permian (Kungurian–Roadian interval), provides the first valid evidence of this group in the East European tetrapod associations, and records the existence of the genus Ariekanerpeton outside the Asian region of Laurasia for the first time.