Article: The skull of Deltacephalus whitei, a lydekkerinid temnospondyl amphibian from the Lower Triassic of Madagascar

The holotype and only skull of Deltacephalus whitei from the Lower Triassic of Madagascar, is redescribed and reconstructed. D. whitei shares several morphological features with Lydekkerina huxleyi and Limnoiketes paludinatans and is argued to be a member of the family Lydekkerinidae. Derived characters distinguishing the Lydekkerinidae from other rhinesuchoid temnospondyls are given, and the genus Deltacephalus is diagnosed within the family. The Early Triassic littoral temnospondyl fauna from north-west Madagascar is reviewed and compared with contemporaneous temnospondyl faunas from the Lystrosaurus Zone of South Africa and the Sticky Keep Formation of Spitsbergen. The Rhytidosteidae and Capitosauridae are represented in all three faunas, whilst the Madagascan fauna is intermediate in sharing lydekkerinids with the South African fauna and trematosaurids with the Spitsbergen fauna.