Abyssomedon is known solely from the
holotype BMRP 2008 33a, a partial
skeleton housed at the
Burpee Museum of Natural History at
Rockford, Illinois. The specimen consists of a semi-articulated partial
skull and disarticulated but associated
postcranial remains. BMRP 2008 33a was discovered in 2008 in a
claystone and conglomerate nodule found at
Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (OMNH) Locality V51. This site, known as
Richards Spur, is located just west of U.S. Highways 62 & 281, 10.5 miles south of
Apache and 6 miles north of
Fort Sill, of
Comanche County, Oklahoma. The fossils of Richards Spur are found in Early Permian fissure fills in Ordovician limestone.
Abyssomedon was first described and named by
Mark J. MacDougall and
Robert R. Reisz in
2014 and the
type species is
Abyssomedon williamsi. The
generic name is derived from
Greek Abyssos, meaning "deep pit", and
-medon, meaning "guardian", in reference to the cave system at Richards Spur. The
specific name williamsi honor the collector of the
holotype Mr. Scott Williams, a paleontologist at the
Burpee Museum. ==Classification==