Kranosaura
Appearance
Kranosaura Temporal range: Late Triassic,
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
Clade: | Archosauriformes |
Clade: | †Protopyknosia |
Genus: | †Kranosaura Nesbitt et al., 2021 |
Species: | †K. kuttyi
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Binomial name | |
†Kranosaura kuttyi Nesbitt et al., 2021
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Kranosaura is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptile from the Late Triassic Upper Maleri Formation of India. It contains a single species, K. kuttyi.
Discovery and naming
[edit]The genus is based on two domes of 9 centimetres (3.5 in) long, discovered by T. S. Kutty in the 1990s and described in 2021 by Nesbitt et al.[1]
Description
[edit]It had an unusually domed head reminiscent of the later pachycephalosaurian dinosaurs in an example of convergent evolution, similar to that of Triopticus.[2] Kranosaura was the sister taxon to Triopticus, with which it forms the clade Protopyknosia.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Nesbitt, S. J.; Stocker, M. R.; Chatterjee, S.; Horner, J. R.; Goodwin, M. B. (2021). "A remarkable group of thick-headed Triassic Period archosauromorphs with a wide, possibly Pangean distribution". Journal of Anatomy. 239 (1): 184–206. doi:10.1111/joa.13414. PMC 8197959. PMID 33660262.
- ^ Stocker, M.R.; Nesbitt, S.J.; Criswell, K.E.; Parker, W.G.; Witmer, L.M.; Rowe, T.B.; Ridgely, R.; Brown, M.A. (2016). "A Dome-Headed Stem Archosaur Exemplifies Convergence among Dinosaurs and Their Distant Relatives". Current Biology. 26 (19): 2674–2680. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.066. PMID 27666971.