Jeholotriton is a genus of primitive salamander from the Daohugou Beds (possibly dating to the late Jurassic period) near Daohugou village of Inner Mongolia, China.
| Jeholotriton Temporal range: Middle or Late Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Urodela |
| Suborder: | Cryptobranchoidea |
| Genus: | †Jeholotriton Wang, 2000 |
| Type species | |
| †Jeholotriton paradoxus Wang, 2000 | |
Wang Yuan from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences first described the species in 2000.[1] In 2005, he presented a full description in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology along with C. S. Rose from James Madison University, United States.[2]
The genus name "Jehol-" refers to Jehol Biota, which flourished during the Early Cretaceous in northeastern China. The original naming paper (Wang, 2000) regarded the salamander a member of the biota, but recent studies reveals this fossil-bearing Daohugou Beds is lower, Middle/Late Jurassic in age. The specific name "paradoxus" refers to the strange skull morphology of the animal.
Classification
A phylogenetic analysis by Wang and S.E. Evans in 2006 found that Jeholotriton is a possible sister taxon to Pangerpeton, a short-bodied salamander from an adjacent locality in Lingyuan, Liaoning, strata comparable to the Daohugou Beds. These two taxa are close to the base of crown−group Urodela (modern salamanders), either just outside it or just within.[3]