''Vitalia'' 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 reptile from the

Early Triassic The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which is a un ...

(late

Olenekian In the geologic timescale, the Olenekian is an age in the Early Triassic epoch; in chronostratigraphy, it is a stage in the Lower Triassic series. It spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). The Olenekian is sometimes divided into ...

stage) of

European Russia European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...

known from 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 ...

''V. grata''. It is known from 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 ...

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 ...

PIN 4173/126 (SGU 104/3105) as well as two additional dentaries PIN 1043/627 and 1043/628, all housed at the

Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences The Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (PIN; russian: Палеонтологический институт РАН) in Moscow is among the world's largest paleontological institutes. An affiliate of the Russian Academy of Scienc ...

. The type dentary was originally included in the hypodigm of '' Coelodontognathus donensis'' named by the notable Russian vertebrate paleontologist Vitaliy Georgiyevich Ochev in 1967. Ivakhnenko (1973) separated the specimen and gave it its own genus and species name in light of the new material, which he named in honor of Ochev. The dentaries of ''Vitalia'' were collected at the Donskaya Luka Locality near the village of Sirotinskaya in

Ilovlinsky District Ilovlinsky District (russian: Иловли́нский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #139-OD district (raion), one of the thirty-three in Volgograd Oblast, Russia. As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Ilovlinsky Municipal Distri ...

Volgograd Oblast Volgograd Oblast (russian: Волгогра́дская о́бласть, ''Volgogradskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region, Volga region of Southern Russia. Its adminis ...

, from the

Lipovskaya Formation The Yarenskian Gorizont (geology), Gorizont ("Yarenskian Horizon") is a major biostratigraphic unit in Russia corresponding to Upper Olenekian-age terrestrial sediments. It lies above the Ustmylian Gorizont of the Vetlugian Supergorizont, and is lo ...

of the Gamskii Horizon. Like ''Coelodontognathus'', ''Vitalia'' was originally described as a

procolophonid 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, Antarc ...

parareptile Parareptilia ("at the side of reptiles") is a subclass or clade of basal sauropsids (reptiles), typically considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds). Parareptiles first arose near the ...

in 1973, but Arkhangelskii & Sennikov (2008) reclassified the taxon as a possible

trilophosaurid Trilophosaurs are lizard-like Triassic allokotosaur reptiles related to the archosaurs. The best known genus is ''Trilophosaurus'', a herbivore up to long. It had a short, unusually heavily built skull, equipped with massive, broad flattened che ...

archosauromorph Archosauromorpha (Greek for "ruling lizard forms") is a clade of diapsid reptiles containing all reptiles more closely related to archosaurs (such as crocodilians and dinosaurs, including birds) rather than lepidosaurs (such as tuataras, liza ...

. ''Vitalia'' is thought to be similar to the possible trilophosaurids ''

Coelodontognathus ''Coelodontognathus'' is an extinct genus of reptile from the Early Triassic (late Olenekian stage) of European Russia. It was originally described as a procolophonid parareptile in 1967 but was reclassified as a possible trilophosaurid archosaur ...

'' and ''

Doniceps ''Doniceps'' is an extinct genus of reptile from the Early Triassic (late Olenekian stage) of European Russia known from the type species ''D. lipovensis''. It was solely known from the holotype premaxilla 104/3106 housed at Saratov University, ...

'', both of which are known exclusively from the same locality. ''Coelodontognathus'' and ''Vitalia'' are similar to procolophonids in that they have wide teeth but differs from them in that they have tooth roots set deep into the jaws.

References

Allokotosaurs Prehistoric reptile genera Olenekian genera Early Triassic reptiles of Europe Triassic Russia Fossils of Russia Fossil taxa described in 1973 {{triassic-reptile-stub