Saharastega is an extinct genus of basal temnospondyl which lived during the Late Permian period, around 251 to 260 million years ago.

Remains of Saharastega, discovered by paleontologist Christian Sidor at the Moradi Formation in Niger, were described briefly in 2005 and more comprehensively in 2006.

The cranial bones are somewhat eroded, but preserved portions are finely textured with pits and ridges as in most adult temnospondyls, but lacking the unornamented areas adjacent to the midline which characterize edopoids.

Unusually among temnospondyls, the skull possessed a large plate of bone above the foramen magnum, which underlaid a system of ridges forming an inverted T shape.

The exoccipital bones on either side of the foramen magnum stretch downwards to underscore the braincase, a rare feature also seen in some "advanced" temnospondyls.

The interpterygoid vacuities (holes between the pterygoid bones which were characteristic of temnospondyls) were relatively small and semicircular, located more than halfway towards the rear of the skull.

[2] The first papers to discuss or describe Saharastega considered it to be part of the group Edopoidea, an early branch of temnospondyl amphibians.

Most edopoids lived in the Carboniferous, but Saharastega (and its equally unusual contemporary Nigerpeton) survived until the late Permian as a relict of the early temnospondyl radiation.

Regardless, it was clear that Saharastega was very basal ("primitive") compared to most temnospondyls, due to the retention of intertemporals, absence of lateral lines, small interpterygoid vacuities, and a narrow contact between the palate and braincase.

[3] An informal suggestion by Australian paleontologist Adam Yates even proposed that it was not a temnospondyl at all, but rather a seymouriamorph based on general similarities to the skull of Seymouria.

The clade containing these two unusual temnospondyls had an inconsistent placement, with a connection to Eryops, stereospondylomorphs, or the very base of Temnospondyli each considered equally likely.

In these restrained reanalyses, Saharastega and Nigerpeton could additionally be within Stereospondylomorpha or close to Dvinosauria, meaning that there were five equally likely positions under certain parsimony methodologies, which relied on the principal that the simplest family tree is the most likely.