The Parareptilia, the purported sister group to the Eureptilia, is not very well known, with many taxa in need of adequate description in the literature. One such taxon, Macroleter poezicus hails from the Upper Permian strata of the Mezen River Basin in the Arkhangel'sk Province of Russia. The cranial anatomy of Macroleter is described from 4 new well-preserved specimens, and this information was incorporated into a phylogeny of early amniotes, using 143 cranial and postcranial characters. A single tree was found, consisting of 428 steps, with the novel result that Macroleter is the taxon most closely related to pareiasaurs. This result has important implications for the phylogeny of the Parareptlia as well as to the identity of a disputed element in the cranium of parieasaurs.