''Sarmatosuchus'' 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 ...

archosauriform Archosauriformes (Greek for 'ruling lizards', and Latin for 'form') is a clade of diapsid reptiles that developed from archosauromorph ancestors some time in the Latest Permian (roughly 252 million years ago). It was defined by Jacques Gauthier ...

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

found in sediments of

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

age and known from the single species ''Sarmatosuchus otschevi''. It is one of the earliest stem-archosaur species known. 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 ...

and only specimen was found in

lithified Lithification (from the Ancient Greek word ''lithos'' meaning 'rock' and the Latin-derived suffix ''-ific'') is the process in which sediments compact under pressure, expel connate fluids, and gradually become solid rock. Essentially, lithificati ...

river deposits of the

Donguz Formation The Donguz Formation, Donguz Svita, or Donguz Rocks (russian: Донгузские скалы) is a Middle Triassic geological formation that crops out on the right bank of Donguz River in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, across the settlement of Pervoma ...

exposed near the

Berdyanka River Berdyanka or Berdianka may refer to: *Berdyanka River (:ru:Бердянка (приток Урала), Бердянка), Orenburg Oblast, Russia *Berdyanka Tract, part of Berdianskyi State Reserve, Berdyanskyi State Reserve (:uk:Бердянськ ...

, Orenburg region,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. 1994 "Pervyj srednetriansovyj proteroscchid iz Vostochnoy Evropy." ''Doklady Akademii Nauk'' 336:359-661 The genus was originally included in the extinct family

Proterosuchidae Proterosuchidae is an early family of basal archosauriforms whose fossils are known from the Latest Permian and the Early Triassic of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and possibly South America. The name comes from Greek πρότερο- ("first") ...

. However, later analysis by

David Gower David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Te ...

and Andrei Sennikov, the describing author, has removed it from the Proterosuchidae and designated it a basal

. & 1997, "Sarmatosuchus and the Early History of the Archosauria" ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 17(1):60-73

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7424287 Prehistoric archosauriforms Prehistoric reptile genera Anisian genera Middle Triassic reptiles of Europe Triassic Russia Fossils of Russia Fossil taxa described in 1994