''Sphodrosaurus'' is an extinct

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 nom ...

of basal archosauriformn reptiles from the

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

-aged

New Oxford Formation The New Oxford Formation is a mapped bedrock unit consisting primarily of sandstones, conglomerates, and shales. The New Oxford Formation was first described in Adams County, Pennsylvania in 1929, and over the following decade was mapped in adjace ...

(not the

Brunswick Formation The Passaic Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It was previously known as the Brunswick Formation since it was first described in the vicinity of New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is now named for the city of ...

as initially suggested) of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The type species is ''S. pennsylvanicus'', described by Edwin Colbert in 1960. Colbert, E. H. (1960). A New Triassic Procolophonid from Pennsylvania. ''American Museum Novitates'' 2022:1-19 The holotype ( NMN Franklin and Marshall College] 2321; the cast is listed under AMNH 7601) consists of a partial skeleton including the back of the skull, the vertebral column, all of the ribs, all of the hindlimbs and part of the upper forelimbs; ''Sphodrosaurus'' was originally believed to have been a member of the

Procolophonidae Procolophonidae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like parareptiles known from the Late Permian to Late Triassic that were distributed across Pangaea, having been reported from Europe, North America, China, South Africa, South America, Anta ...

while more recently ''Sphodrosaurus'' was believed to be a basal member of the Diapsida by most authors starting with Sues ''et al.'' (1993), or a member of the

Rhynchosauria 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 ...

(Baird, 1986). In 2022, Ezcurra & Sues redescribed the holotype in detail and placed it in a phylogenetic analysis with other Triassic diapsid reptiles, where it was found as the basalmost doswellid.

References

Prehistoric reptile genera Late Triassic extinctions Taxa named by Edwin H. Colbert Fossil taxa described in 1960 {{paleo-reptile-stub