Trilophosaurus

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Trilophosaurus
Temporal range: Late Triassic, Carnian–Norian
Skeleton of
Trilophosaurus buettneri
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: †Allokotosauria
Order: †Trilophosauria
Family: †Trilophosauridae
Genus: †Trilophosaurus
Case, 1928
Type species
†Trilophosaurus buettneri
Case, 1928
Species
Synonyms
Genus synonymy
Synonyms of T. buettneri:
Synonyms of T. jacobsi:
  • Chinleogomphius jacobsi (Murry, 1987)
  • ?Trilophosaurus dornorum Mueller & Parker, 2006

Trilophosaurus (

allokotosaur known from the Late Triassic of North America. It was a herbivore up to 2.5 m long. It had a short, unusually heavily built skull, equipped with massive, broad flattened cheek teeth with sharp shearing surfaces for cutting up tough plant material. Teeth are absent from the premaxilla
and front of the lower jaw, which in life were probably equipped with a horny beak.

T. buettneri.
T. buettneri compared to a human.

The skull is also unusual in that the lower

placodonts within Sauropterygia. Carroll
(1988) suggested that the lower opening may have been lost to strengthen the skull.

Life reconstruction of Trilophosaurus buettneri

Trilophosaurus is traditionally thought to include two valid species: the typical T. buettneri and the more robust T. jacobsi. In 1993, paleontologists

junior synonym of T. jacobsi,[5] a view that was maintained since in other publications.[6] Spielmann et al. (2006) redescribed the type material of Malerisaurus langstoni and concluded that it's indistinguishable from T. buettneri, and thus M. langstoni represents its synonym.[7]

Nesbitt et al. (2015) performed a

monophyletic clade to the exclusion of T. buettneri based on a single autapomorphy. Furthermore, the types of S. caseanus and T. jacobsi as well as the Kahle Quarry material all scored identically, suggesting that T. jacobsi not only should be reassigned to Spinosuchus, but in fact represents the junior synonym of its type and only species (S. caseanus). Nesbitt et al. (2015) refrained from officially synonymizing the two taxa pending further study of other advanced trilophosaurids.[6]

Sources

  • Benton, M. J.
    (2000), Vertebrate Paleontology, 2nd ed. Blackwell Science Ltd, p. 144
  • Carroll, R. L. (1988), Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, W.H. Freeman & Co. p. 266
  • Justin A. Spielmann (2008). The Late Triassic Archosauromorph Trilophosaurus. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. pp. 1–177.
  1. doi:10.1080/02724634.1993.10011510
    .
  2. ISBN 9780521458993
    .
  3. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00556.x
    .
  4. ^ Müller, B. D. & Parker, W. G., 2006. A new species of Trilophosaurus (Diapsida: Archosauromorpha) from the Sonsela Member (Chinle Formation) of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Museum of Northern Arizona, Bulletin 62:119-125.
  5. ^ Spielmann, J.A., Lucas, S.G., Heckert, A.B., Rinehart, L.F., and Richards, H.R., III. 2009. Redescription of Spinosuchus caseanus (Archosauromorpha: Trilophosauridae) from the Upper Triassic of North America. Palaeodiversity 2:283-313.
  6. ^
    ISSN 0003-0090
    .
  7. ^ Spielmann, J.A., Lucas, S.G., Hunt, A.P., and Heckert. 2006. Reinterpretation of the holotype of Malerisaurus langstoni, a diapsid reptile from the Upper Triassic Chinle Group of West Texas. The Triassic-Jurassic Terrestrial Transition. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin 37:543-547.

External links

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