''Pamizinisaurus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of sphenodontian reptile known from

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́� ...

(

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± ...

) Tlayúa Formation of

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. A crushed skeleton of a juvenile reptile was found in Tlayua Quarry, in central Mexico. It was named ''Pamizinsaurus tlayuaensis'' by Reynoso in 1997, after the name of the quarry of which it was found. Its skull length is . The fossil was covered in small round

osteoderm Osteoderms are bony deposits forming scales, plates, or other structures based in the dermis. Osteoderms are found in many groups of extant and extinct reptiles and amphibians, including lizards, crocodilians, frogs, temnospondyls (extinc ...

s that could have protected it from predators.

Relatives

Reynoso (1997) argued that ''Pamizinsaurus'' was a genus of the subfamily Sphenodontinae; grouping it with the modern ''

Sphenodon Tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') are reptiles endemic to New Zealand. Despite their close resemblance to lizards, they are part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. The name ''tuatara'' is derived from the Māori language and ...

'' (better known as the ''Tuatara''), '' Zapatadon'', '' Cynosphenodon'', '' Homoeosaurus'', '' Sapheosaurus'', and ''

Ankylosphenodon ''Ankylosphenodon'' is an extinct species of sphenodontian known from Tepexi de Rodriguez, Mexico. It is known from Early Cretaceous sedimentary deposits from the Tlayua formation. Lifestyle ''Ankylosphenodon'' is thought to have been an aqu ...

''.

References

External links

Professor Paul's Guide to Reptiles
Sphenodontia Early Cretaceous reptiles of North America Prehistoric reptile genera {{cretaceous-reptile-stub