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A new rhynchosaur from south Brazil (Santa Maria Formation) and rhynchosaur diversity patterns across the Middle-Late Triassic boundary

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An Erratum to this article was published on 12 September 2016

Abstract

The rhynchosaur previously referred to as the “Mariante Rhynchosaur” is here formally described as a new genus and species based on two specimens: a complete skull (without the lower jaw) articulated with the three first cervical vertebrae and a set of right maxilla and dentary. Both specimens were collected at the same site in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from deposits of the Santa Maria Formation considered of Ladinian (Middle Triassic) age. Diagnostic characters include the contact between prefrontal and postfrontal, a pair of deep frontal grooves, and a very deep skull. A new phylogenetic analysis recovered the new taxon as a member of the Stenaulorhynchinae, a relatively diverse clade of Middle Triassic rhynchosaurs, with records in India, east Africa, and the Americas. Evidence suggests that the extinction of that clade took place in the context of a faunal turnover across the Ladinian-Carnian boundary, when it was replaced by the much more abundant Late Triassic hyperodapedontine rhynchosaurs.

Kurzfassung

Der früher als “Mariante Rhynchosaur” bezeichnete Rhynchosaurier wird hier, anhand zweier Exemplare (ein unterkieferloser kompletter Schädel mit den drei ersten Halswirbeln sowie ein Satz rechter Oberkiefer und Dentale), formell als neue Gattung und Art beschrieben. Beide Exemplare wurden in der selben Lagerstätte in Rio Grande do Sul, Brasilien, gefunden, in Ablagerungen der Santa Maria Formation aus dem Zeitalter des Ladinium (Mittlere Trias). Diagnostische Merkmale beinhalten den Kontakt zwischen Pre- und Postfrontale, ein Paar tiefer frontaler Furchen, und einen sehr tiefen Schädel. Eine neue phylogenetische Analyse positionierte das neue Taxon als Mitglied der Stenaulorhynchinae, eine relative vielfältige Klade an Rhynchosauriern des Mittleren Trias, mit Funden aus Indien, Ostafrika und den Amerikas. Hinweise deuten darauf, dass das Aussterben der Klade im Zusammenhang eines Faunenaustausches an der Ladinium-Karnium Grenze stattfand, als sie durch die viel häufigeren hyperodapedontinen Rhynchosaurier des Späten Trias ersetzt wurden.

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Acknowledgments

Max Langer research is supported by FAPESP Grant # 2014/03825–3). The authors thank the Paläontologische Zeitschrift reviewers Mike Benton and Martin Ezcurra for their useful comments. Photographs taken by Luiz Flávio P. Lopes, drawings by Bianca M. Mastrantonio, CLS Grant: CNPq 309995/2013-2.

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  1. Departamento de Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, RS, 91540-000, Brazil

    Cesar Leandro Schultz

  2. Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeirão Preto, SP, 14040–901, Brazil

    Max Cardoso Langer

  3. Departamento de Biologia e Zootecnia, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Passeio Monção 226, Ilha Solteira, SP, 15385-000, Brazil

    Felipe Chinaglia Montefeltro

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12542-016-0325-5.

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Schultz, C.L., Langer, M.C. & Montefeltro, F.C. A new rhynchosaur from south Brazil (Santa Maria Formation) and rhynchosaur diversity patterns across the Middle-Late Triassic boundary. PalZ 90, 593–609 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-016-0307-7

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