ISSN 0031-0301, Paleontological Journal, 2015, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 413–423. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2015. Original Russian Text © V.V. Bulanov, A.G. Sennikov, 2015, published in Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal, 2015, No. 4, pp. 79–90. 413 INTRODUCTION Reliable remains of the most ancient gliding rep- tiles, Permian Weigeltisauridae, are presently known from Madagascar, Germany, Great Britain, and Rus- sia. The first taxon of this group was formally described by Piveteau (1926) under the name Coelurosauravus elivensis from Gondwana, referred to coelurosaurs, and regarded as a probable ancestor of Compsognathus. At present, the collection of C. elivensis is represented by imprints of three skeletons. Since the bones are completely weathered out, the morphology of this spe- cies is usually described based on the plastic replicas of imprints. The material from Madagascar is of great importance for a better understanding of the weigelti- saurid postcranium, including the axial region, limbs, girdles, and framework structures of the patagium (Carroll, 1978). The skull of C. elivensis, the morpho- logical study of which is particularly important for revision of the generic composition of the family, could have been reconstructed only partially and the present study is intended to solve this task. Until now, in the study of cranial morphology of weigeltisaurids, attention was paid to the material from Europe. The first known European member of the family was described under the name Palaeo- chamaeleo jaekeli from the Kupferschiefer of Ger- many (Weigelt, 1930). Since this generic name turned out to be preoccupied, it was subsequently replaced by Weigeltisaurus (Kuhn, 1939). For a long time, the skull of the holotype of W. jaekeli (specimen SSWG, no. 113/7), which is much more completely preserved than the specimens from Madagascar, was the basis for reconstruction of the weigeltisaurid skull, discussion of homology of its elements, and taxonomic position of the group. The last revision of the type collection of C. eliven- sis and W. jaekeli resulted in the rejection of the genus Weigeltisaurus (Evans and Haubold, 1987). All West European specimens found later, such as an aberrant specimen from Mansfeld (Schaumberg et al., 2007), “the specimen from Eppleton” (Pettigrew, 1979), which is only known from the postcranium, and a remarkable skeleton from Karlsruhe (Frey et al., 1997) were assigned to the genus Coelurosauravus. In the present study, we accept the validity of the genus Weigeltisaurus, taking into account that it differs from Coelurosauravus in the structure of cervical vertebrae and some bones of the skull roof, as follows from the material described below and available data on the morphology of W. jaekeli (Weigelt, 1930; Evans and Haubold, 1987). Comparative material includes East European weigeltisaurids from localities of the Kul’chumovo section in the Orenburg Region (Russia). Our sample includes mostly isolated bones belonging to individu- als varying in age and referred to two species of the genus Rautiania, R. alexandri and R. minichi (Bulanov and Sennikov, 2006), the differences between which are observed in the structure of parietals and maxillae. The holotypes of these species are the parietals, which New Data on the Morphology of the Late Permian Gliding Reptile Coelurosauravus elivensis Piveteau V. V. Bulanov a and A. G. Sennikov a, b a Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya ul. 123, Moscow, 117997 Russia b Kazan Federal University, Kremlevskaya ul. 18, Kazan, 420008 Russia e-mail: bulanov@paleo.ru, sennikov@paleo.ru Received May 14, 2014 Abstract—Based on the material from the type locality (Eliva Mountain, Madagascar), the cranial morphol- ogy of the Late Permian gliding reptile Coelurosauravus elivensis Piveteau, 1926 (Weigeltisauridae) is redescribed. The diagnosis of the genus Coelurosauravus is emended based on comparisons with East Euro- pean weigeltisaurids of the genus Rautiania. It is shown that C. elivensis and all weigeltisaurids lack the post- frontals and supratemporals and have a small preorbital fenestra between the maxilla and nasal, partially reduced lacrimal, and large nasolacrimal duct piercing the prefrontal. The poor development of ornamental outgrowths on the parietal and in the ventral part of the squamosal as well as the small size of studied individ- uals of C. elivensis are caused by their juvenile age. Keywords: gliding reptiles, cranial morphology, Late Permian, Madagascar DOI: 10.1134/S0031030115040048