''Teyumbaita'' 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 Upper

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 ...

of southern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Its fossils were recovered from the early

Norian The Norian is a division of the Triassic Period. It has the rank of an age (geochronology) or stage (chronostratigraphy). It lasted from ~227 to million years ago. It was preceded by the Carnian and succeeded by the Rhaetian. Stratigraphic defi ...

-age

Caturrita Formation The Caturrita Formation is a geological formation, rock formation found in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Its sediments were deposited in the Paraná Basin. The formation is from the Upper Triassic and forms part of the Santa Maria Supersequence in th ...

, one of several fossiliferous formations exposed at

Paleorrota Geopark The Paleorrota Geopark Project was established in Preparatory Procedure No. 1.29.008.000640/2017-22 done at the Public Prosecutor's Office (Brazil) of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul. The geopark is composed of the Permian and Triassic The Triass ...

in the state of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

. ''Teyumbaita'' is likely the youngest valid genus of rhynchosaur, as other members of the group likely died out before the start of the Norian. Fossils of ''Teyumbaita'' include two nearly complete

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

s and a partial skull, all of which were discovered in the lower part of the Caturrita Formation. The fossils were first named as ''Scaphonyx sulcognathus'', a species of ''

Scaphonyx ''Hyperodapedon'' is a genus of rhynchosaurs (beaked, archosaur-like reptiles) from the 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 naming ...

''. The genus ''Scaphonyx'' is now considered to be a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

'', so ''S. sulcognathus'' was reassigned to its own genus by Felipe Chinaglia Montefeltro, Max Cardoso Langer and Cesar Leandro Schultz in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. This new genus name, ''Teyumbaita'', was constructed from "lizard (''teyú'') and parrot ''(mbaitá'')" in the

ian aborigine Tupi-Guaraní language, and the ''

combinatio nova ''Combinatio nova'', abbreviated ''comb. nov.'' (sometimes ''n. comb.''), is Latin for "new combination". It is used in taxonomic biology literature when a new name is introduced based on a pre-existing name. The term should not to be confused wi ...

'' is ''Teyumbaita sulcognathus''. Fossil material of a second, yet-unnamed species, is known from the Hoyada del Cerro Las Lajas site of 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 ...

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 ...

Phylogeny

Cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

based on Montefeltro, Langer and Schultz (2010):

Material

Many specimens of ''T. sulcognathus'' have been found to date: * UFRGS-PV-0232T (

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 ...

) – partial

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

with nearly complete

* UFRGS-PV-0298T – partial skeleton and nearly complete skull * UFRGS-PV-0290T – partial skeleton and skull * UFRGS-PV-0418T – partial right

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

* UFRGS-PV-0420T – partial right

dentary In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

and postcrania * UFRGS-PV-0445T – partial maxilla * MCP-683 – partial left dentary

References

Rhynchosaurs Late Triassic reptiles of South America Triassic Brazil Fossils of Argentina Fossils of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 2010 Ischigualasto Formation Tupi–Guarani languages Prehistoric reptile genera {{triassic-reptile-stub