''Pelorocephalus'' (meaning "monstrous head" in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

) is an extinct

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 chigutisaurid

temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') is a diverse order (biology), order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered Labyrinthodontia, primitive amphi ...

s from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch ...

(

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 ...

) Cacheutá Formation of the

Cuyo Basin Cuyo Basin ( es, Cuenca Cuyana) is a sedimentary basin in Mendoza Province, western Argentina. The Cuyo Basin has a NNW-SSE elongated shape and is limited to the west by the Sierra Pintada System and to the east by the Pampean pericraton. To the ...

and the

Ischigualasto Formation The Ischigualasto Formation is a Late Triassic fossiliferous formation and Lagerstätte in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin of the southwestern La Rioja Province and northeastern San Juan Province in northwestern Argentina. The formation da ...

of the

Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin The Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin ( es, Cuenca de Ischigualasto-Villa Unión) is a small sedimentary basin located in the Argentine Northwest, Argentina. It is located in the southwestern part of La Rioja Province and the northeastern part of ...

, both in northwestern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Three species are currently recognized: 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 ...

''P. mendozensis'', which was named in 1944, ''P. tenax'', which was named in 1949 as a species of '' Chigutisaurus'' and reassigned to ''Pelorocephalus'' in 1999, and ''P. cacheutensis'', which was named in 1953 as another species of ''Chigutisaurus'' and reassigned to ''Pelorocephalus'' along with ''P. tenax''. A fourth species, ''P. ischigualastensis'', was named in 1975 after the formation it was found in. The species ''P. tunuyanensis'' was named in 1948 but has since been synonymized with ''P. mendozensis''. The largest individuals are estimated to have been over in length.Angellis.net
/ref>

References

Chigutisaurids Carnian genera Triassic temnospondyls of South America Late Triassic animals of South America Triassic Argentina Fossils of Argentina Ischigualasto Formation Fossil taxa described in 1944 Taxa named by Ángel Cabrera {{temnospondyli-stub