''Isalorhynchus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of hyperodapedontine

rhynchosaur Rhynchosaurs are a group of extinct herbivorous Triassic archosauromorph reptiles, belonging to the order Rhynchosauria. Members of the group are distinguished by their triangular skulls and elongated, beak like premaxillary bones. Rhynchosaurs ...

from the late

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

(

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage of the Upper Triassic Series (or earliest age of the Late Triassic Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227 million years ago (Ma). The Carnian is preceded by the Ladinian and is followed by t ...

stage) of

Toliara Province The Toliara Province (formerly Toliary or Tuléar) is a former provinces of Madagascar, province of Madagascar with an area of . It had a population of 2,229,550 (July, 2001). Its capital was Toliara. Near Toliara was the "Madagascar spiny thickets ...

, southwestern

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It is known from the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

MDE-R18, a nearly complete

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

and from other specimens from the same locality, Malio River area. It was found in the

Makay Formation Isalo II, also known as the Makay Formation, is an informal Triassic geological unit in Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de ...

(or Isalo II) of the

Morondava Basin Morondava Basin is one of the major sedimentary basins of Madagascar. It encompasses the large Tsimiroro heavy oil field and giant Bemolanga Bemolanga is a large oil sands deposit in the onshore Morondava Basin of Madagascar. The deposit was ...

(or Isalo beds). It was first named by

Eric Buffetaut The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

and the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is ''Isalorhynchus genovefae''. The majority of ''Isalorhynchus'' specimens are isolated jaw bones, but two nearly complete skeletons were found in 1998. Langer ''et al.'', 2000 concluded that ''Isalorhynchus'' is a synonym of ''

Hyperodapedon ''Hyperodapedon'' is a genus of rhynchosaurs (beaked, archosaur-like reptiles) from the Triassic, Late Triassic period (Carnian stage). Fossils of the genus have been found in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America. Its first discovery ...

'' and referred it to a new species of ''Hyperodapedon''. Whatley, 2005 retained this genus as valid with a description of new materials in her PhD thesis. Montefeltro ''et al.'', 2010 and Langer ''et al.'', 2010 accepted ''Isalorhynchus'' as valid genus.

References

Rhynchosaurs Late Triassic reptiles of Africa Triassic Madagascar Fossil taxa described in 1983 Taxa named by Éric Buffetaut Prehistoric reptile genera {{triassic-reptile-stub