''Vonhuenia'' (named after

Friedrich von Huene Friedrich von Huene, born Friedrich Richard von Hoinigen, (March 22, 1875 – April 4, 1969) was a German paleontologist who renamed more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe. He also made key contributions about v ...

) 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 basal

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Fossils have been found in the Vokhminskaya Formation, along the

Vetluga River Vetluga (, , ''Vütla'') is a river in the Kirov Oblast, Kostroma Oblast, Mari El Republic and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast of Russia. It is a left tributary of the Volga.Induan The Induan is the first age of the Early Triassic epoch in the geologic timescale, or the lowest stage of the Lower Triassic series in chronostratigraphy. It spans the time between 251.902 Ma and Ma (million years ago). The Induan is sometimes ...

in age, making ''Vonhuenia'' one of the earliest archosauriforms.

Classification

The type species ''V. friedrichi'', named in 1992, is based on material that was misassigned to the genus ''

Chasmatosuchus ''Chasmatosuchus'' was an archosauriform reptile from the early Triassic period of European Russia. One of the earliest described archosauriforms, it was over 2 m long and is thought to have behaved like a modern crocodile. Its mouth had t ...

'' by Ochev (1978). Although originally classified as a proterosuchid, a 2016 cladistic analysis recovered it as a non-eucrocopodan archosauriform of uncertain position.Ezcurra, M.D. (2016),The phylogenetic relationships of basal archosauromorphs, with an emphasis on the systematics of proterosuchian archosauriforms. PeerJ4:e1778;DOI10.7717/peerj.1778

Paleobiology

''Vonhuenia'' was a small archosauriform that lived alongside amphibians like ''

Tupilakosaurus ''Tupilakosaurus'' is an extinct genus of dvinosaurian temnospondyl within the family Tupilakosauridae. Two species are known: *''Tupilakosaurus heilmani'' Nielsen, 1954 — Wordie Creek Formation, Greenland *''Tupilakosaurus wetlugensis'' Shish ...

'' and ''

Luzocephalus ''Luzocephalus'' is an extinct genus of temnospondyl amphibian from the Early Triassic of Russia. It is usually regarded as a member of the family Lydekkerinidae, although it has also been placed in the family Trematosauridae Trematosauridae a ...

'', small reptiles like ''

Phaanthosaurus ''Phaanthosaurus'' is an extinct genus of basal procolophonid parareptile from early Triassic (Induan stage) deposits of Nizhnii Novgorod, Russian Federation. It is known from the holotype PIN 1025/1, a mandible (a dentary). It was collected ...

'', and the large-bodied

dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivorous animals with a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, typicall ...

Lystrosaurus ''Lystrosaurus'' (; 'shovel lizard'; proper Greek is λίστρον ''lístron'' ‘tool for leveling or smoothing, shovel, spade, hoe’) is an extinct genus of herbivorous dicynodont therapsids from the late Permian and Early Triassic epochs (a ...

'' in the earliest Triassic.

References

Early Triassic reptiles of Europe Prehistoric reptile genera Prehistoric archosauriforms {{triassic-reptile-stub