Review of the tetrapod fauna of the "lower Stormberg Group" of the main Karoo Basin (Southern Africa); implication for the age of the lower Elliot Formation

On the basis of its tetrapod fauna, the "Stormberg Group" of southern Africa can be divided into at least two zones. The lowest one is composed of the Molteno and Lower Elliot Formations. It has yielded remains of poorly known stereospondyls, unpublished rauisuchians, enigmatic carnivorous dinosaurs, numerous prosauropods, and rare sauropods and cynodonts. The presence of an ornithischian and a chelonian is alleged, but that of a dicynodont is quite doubtful. The age of the Lower Elliot Formation has been the subject of much speculation. A parallel is drawn with European Upper Norian-"Rhaetian" sites in which plateosaurid prosauropods constitute the vast majority of macrovertebrate remains. In conclusion, the Lower Elliot Formation is correlated with the Apachean "Land Vertebrate Faunachron", which suggests that it is not older than late Norian.