Allokotosauria, a clade of non-archosauriform archosauromorphs with a broad diversity of body plans, plays a crucial role in better understanding the evolutionary history of early diverging stem-archosaurs. Here we provide a detailed redescription of Malerisaurus robinsonae, a malerisaurine allokotosaur from the middle Carnian-lowermost Norian lower Maleri Formation, Pranhita-Godavari Basin, India. The new anatomical information available from recently discovered and well-preserved skeletons of various allokotosaurs, such as Azendohsaurus madagaskarensis, Shringasaurus indicus, Puercosuchus traverorum, and Malerisaurus-like taxa, and their comparison with Malerisaurus robinsonae enriches our understanding of the anatomy of this species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProterosuchidae represents the oldest substantial diversification of Archosauromorpha and plays a key role in understanding the biotic recovery after the end-Permian mass extinction. Proterosuchidae was long treated as a wastebasket taxon, but recent revisions have reduced its taxonomic content to five valid species from the latest Permian of Russia and the earliest Triassic (Induan) of South Africa and China. In addition to these occurrences, several isolated proterosuchid bones have been reported from the Induan Panchet Formation of India for over 150 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: comb. nov. is an extinct pleurodiran turtle from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of India, previously referred to and .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: is an extinct turtle from the Early to Middle Jurassic Kota Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Gondwana basin, India. The holotype and previously only known specimen is a partially eroded shell that had been collected near Kota village, north of Sironcha, in Maharashtra State. Phylogenetic analyses have consistently suggested placement at the base of the clade Mesochelydia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: was described as an emydine turtle based on a well-preserved skull retrieved from late Miocene deposits exposed on Piram Island, India. The description and figures provided in the original publication are vague and do not support assignment to Emydinae. This taxon has mostly been ignored by subsequent authors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe early evolution of archosauromorphs (bird- and crocodile-line archosaurs and stem-archosaurs) represents an important case of adaptive radiation that occurred in the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction. Here we enrich the early archosauromorph record with the description of a moderately large (3-4 m in total length), herbivorous new allokotosaurian, Shringasaurus indicus, from the early Middle Triassic of India. The most striking feature of Shringasaurus indicus is the presence of a pair of large supraorbital horns that resemble those of some ceratopsid dinosaurs.
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