Kranosaura

Kranosaura
Temporal range: Late Triassic, 220–208.5 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauriformes
Clade: †Protopyknosia
Genus: †Kranosaura
Nesbitt et al., 2021
Species:
†K. kuttyi
Binomial name
†Kranosaura kuttyi
Nesbitt et al., 2021

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

The genus is based on two domes of 9 centimetres (3.5 in) long, discovered by Tharavat S. Kutty in the 1990s and described in 2021 by Nesbitt et al.

Description

It had an unusually domed head reminiscent of the later pachycephalosaurian dinosaurs in an example of convergent evolution, similar to that of Triopticus. Kranosaura was the sister taxon to Triopticus, with which it forms the clade Protopyknosia.

References

  1. 1 2 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.
  2. ↑ 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. Bibcode:2016CBio...26.2674S. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.066. PMID 27666971.