Abstract The Norwegian Arctic Svalbard archipelago is famous for its prolific record of Early–Middle Triassic vertebrate fossils. These represent mainly marine amniotes, together with sharks, bony fishes and temnospondyl amphibians, the latter providing an important faunal correlate with coeval assemblages from the Danish autonomous region of Greenland. However, substantial biostratigraphical gaps exist in the Upper Triassic strata of Svalbard, which are marked by pronounced facies shifts from marine to deltaic systems and intermittent depositional hiatuses. These are accompanied by a dearth of documented vertebrate remains, a notable exception being the partial skull of the capitosaurian Capitosaurus polaris and a few isolated stereospondylian intercentra probably from the middle–late Carnian De Geerdalen Formation of Spitsbergen. Reassessment of this material, which incorporates the only undisputed capitosaurian fossil from Svalbard, indicates affinity with Cyclotosaurus , known elsewhere from the late Norian–early Rhaetian Fleming Fjord Formation of Greenland. The Scandinavian Arctic temnospondyls constituted components of sympatric assemblages that inhabited the Boreal margin of Pangaea throughout the Triassic.

Abstract Although primarily a pre-eminent palaeoichthyologist, Arthur Smith Woodward’s research and publications ranged across all major tetrapod groups: nevertheless, his contributions in this area have generally been overshadowed by involvement in the ‘Piltdown Man’ affair. Smith Woodward published on fossil amphibians, every major group of reptiles and on mammals. Most of the new taxa he named remain valid, a testament to his wide knowledge and understanding of fossil vertebrates beyond his principal speciality, although some of these have now been extensively revised. He travelled widely in Europe and the Americas, resulting in some of the earliest work on Gondwanan Cretaceous reptiles. Several of his taxa revealed the existence of previously unknown groups (e.g. notosuchian crocodiles) or provided important character data that have fuelled various phylogenetic debates (e.g. snake and tyrannosauroid origins). His influence extended beyond his own scientific efforts to incorporate his role as a senior administrator, supporting the acquisition of significant reptile specimens for the collection, and as an educator, producing articles for museum visitors and the general public.