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Rechnisaurus cristarhynchus skull
Skull of Rechnisaurus cristarhynchuss (after Crozier 1970).
Rechnisaurus cristarhynchus was a dicynodont ("two dog teeth") herbivore from the Middle Triassic period of India. An incomplete skull was found in 1970 by Roy-Chowdhury in the Middle Yarapalli Formation of the Pranhita-Godvari Valley of central India, dating from 247-242 mya. Rechnisaurus is placed in the class Synapsida, the order Therapsida, and the infra-order Dicynodonta.
Rechnisaurus was originally also grouped with
kannameyerids such as Wadiasaurus indicus, therapsid
herbivores whose females and juveniles grazed in herds in river
valleys, while solitary males joined the herds only during the mating
seasons (Bandyopadhyay, 1988 1999). Owing to the incompleteness of the
skull, however, these relations remain uncertain. Rechnisaurus also shows some similarities to a large South American herbivore named Dinodontosaurus (Jain 1996).
References:
Bandyopadhyay, S. 1988. A Kannemeyeriid Dicynodont from the Middle Triassic Yerrapalli Formation. Phil. Trans. R. Soc 320 (1198), pp. 185–233
Bandyopadhyay, S. 1999. Gondwana Vertebrate Faunas of India. PINSA 65(8), pp.285-313.
Crozier, E.A. 1970. Preliminary Report on two Triassic dicynodonts from Zambia. Palaeontologica Africana 13, pp.39-45.
Jain, S.L. 1996. Aspects of Vertebrate Fossils from Prahita-Godavari Valley with Emphasis on Dinosaur Discoveries. Journal of the Palaentological Society of India 41, pp. 1-16.
Roy-Chowdhury. T.R. 1970. Two new dicynodonts from the Triassic Yerrapalli Formation of central India. Palaeontology 13, pp.133-144.
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