Cutleria wilmarthi
Cutleria is an extinct genus of basal sphenacodontids or derived stem-sphenacodontoid known from the Early Permian period of Colorado, United States. It contains a single species, Cutleria wilmarthi.
Discovery
Cutleria is known only from the holotype specimen USNM 22099, a fractured but three-dimensionally preserved, a nearly complete skull and articulated partial postcranial skeleton. It was collected at locality 3, near Placerville of San Miguel County, Colorado, from the Cutler Formation, dating to the Sakmarian stage of the Cisuralian series. MCZ 2987, a tip of the rostrum and some teeth collected 2.5 km from the type locality, was originally referred to C. wilmarthi by Lewis and Vaughn. A redescription of sphenacodonts by Michel Laurin, revealed that it cannot be assigned to any named sphenacodont genus. Although its teeth also bear cutting edges without serrations, they are more bulbous, not as strongly compressed laterally and not curved distally. A new genus was not erected for MCZ 2987, as it is very fragmentary and lacks sufficient diagnostic features.
Description
Cutleria was assigned to the Haptodontinae by Lewis and Vaughn on the basis of similarities to Haptodus baylei and H. longicaudata. Currie described the second haptodontine from North America, Haptodus garnettensis. In 1979, he synonymized all European haptodontines, as well as C. wilmarthi, with H. baylei. Later, Laurin considered Haptodontinae to represent a polyphyletic grade of basal sphenacodonts, and revalidated Cutleria among other genera and species. His revision has been accepted since. Only three phylogenetic analyses included Cutleria. Laurin and Fröbisch et al. recovered Cutleria as the sister taxon of Sphenacodontoidea, while the significantly larger analysis of Benson recovered it as the basalmost sphenacodontid. Benson listed three synapomorphies between Cutleria and more derived sphenacodontids: their frontal is more than 2.5 times the length of the parietal, a strongly posteroventrally inclined temporal roof, and a lateral centrale that covers the proximal ends of the first-third distal carpals. However, only one additional step was required to place Cutleria outside Sphenacodontidae, as the sister taxon of Sphenacodontoidea. The cladogram below shows Cutleria phylogenetic position among other synapsids following Benson.
Etymology
Cutleria was first described and named by George Edward Lewis and Peter Paul Vaughn in 1965 and the type species is Cutleria wilmarthi. The generic name is derived from the name of the Cutler Formation in which the holotype was found. The specific name honors Verl Richard Wilmarth for finding the holotype, together with Rollin Vickers.