Austronaga minuta occupied the Tethys Ocean throughout the Middle Triassic duration, some 244 million years back.

The brand-new types is an archosauromorph, a member of a group that consists of all of the kinds more carefully associated to archosaurs (such as crocodilians and dinosaurs) than to lepidosaurs.

The ancient reptile is the sis types of Dinocephalosaurus orientalisanother amazing marine reptile from the Middle Triassic of China.

“The Middle Triassic of southern China has actually yielded amazing marine vertebrate assemblages that are dramatically altering our understanding of the biotas of the Tethys Sea and its coastlines,” stated Dr. Wei Wang and associates from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and the Luoping Biota National Geopark.

“A group of Triassic non-archosauriform archosauromorphs take a popular location amongst these discoveries.”

“They were typically called Protorosauria or protorosaurs however are now thought about as a paraphyletic group.”

“One types coming from this group of reptiles, Dinocephalosaurus orientalisis among the most interesting reptiles found in the last few years from the Triassic of southern China,” they included.

“Its considerably extended neck remembers a comparable condition as seen in another water archosauromorph, Tanystropheus“

“Both types have a neck that is more than two times as long as the trunk.”

“The brand-new non-crocopodan archosauromorph from Yunnan shares numerous functions with Dinocephalosaurus and together with the latter are appreciable from other long-necked archosauromorphs.”

“However, this brand-new types likewise shows numerous physiological functions various from Dinocephalosaurusand for that reason a brand-new genus and types are recommended for it.”

A small-sized however skeletally fully grown specimen of Austronaga minuta was recuperated from the Guanling Formation at Waina town in Yunnan province, southwestern China.

“The specimen consists of a nearly total, albeit considerably compressed, skull, the anterior part of the neck in expression with the skull, and the majority of the tail of around 60 caudal vertebrae,” the paleontologists stated.

Their phylogenetic analysis reveals that Austronaga minuta together with Dinocephalosaurus and Pectodens form a clade representing the archosauromorph household Dinocephalosauridae.

The brand-new marine reptile most likely had a marine or semi-aquatic way of life.

“The dentition of Austronaga is less specific than that of Tanystropheus and Dinocephalosaurusyet it has some bigger teeth as in these types, which represents a most likely diet plan of little water animals like fishes and cephalopods,” the scientists stated.

“Other prospective signs for water mobility originated from the tail of Austronaga“

“Elaborate structures on caudal neural spinal columns and chevrons are just observed in Austronaga and Dinocephalosaurus amongst these non-crocopodan archosauromorphs.”

“These structures on the tail are not vital for water propulsion considering their lack in other marine reptiles and even in a number of marine family trees.”

“Nevertheless, a comparable morphology is convergently present in numerous water reptiles. Plate-like caudal neural spinal columns are established in the basal ichthyosaurs, Sclerocormus and Chaohusaurus“

“T-shaped chevrons are discovered in the enigmatic sauropterygiform Atopodentatusand in the primitive placodonts Paraplacodus and Placodus“

“Therefore, we think about the morphology of the caudal vertebrae in Austronaga to represent a marine or a minimum of semi-aquatic animal.”

The discovery is reported in a paper in the journal Vertebrata PalAsiatica

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W. Wang et al2024. A small-sized dinocephalosaurid archosauromorph from the Middle Triassic of Yunnan, southwestern China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 62 (1 ): 13-32; doi: 10.19615/ j.cnki.2096-9899.231013