Dongusia

Dongusia
Dongusia
Temporal range: Middle Triassic, 237 Ma
↓
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
informal group: Rauisuchia
Node: Paracrocodylomorpha
Branch: Loricata
Family: †Rauisuchidae
Genus: †Dongusia
Huene, 1940
Species
  • †D. colorata Huene, 1940 (type)

Dongusia is an extinct genus of rauisuchid reptile from the Middle Triassic of Russia. The type species D. colorata was named by German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1940 on the basis of a single vertebra. This bone was found in the Sol-Iletsky District of Orenburg Oblast. Huene thought Dongusia was a primitive archosauriform. In the 1960s, D. coloratawas included in the early archosauriform genus Erythrosuchus. In 1970, similarities were noted between the Dongusia vertebra and those of the rauisuchid "Mandasuchus" from Tanzania. The vertebra is now thought to belong to a rauisuchid, but the genus Dongusia is considered a nomen dubium because there are no diagnostic features in the single bone that distinguish it from other rauisuchids.[1]

References

  1. ^ Sennikov, A.G.; and Gower, D.J. (2000). "Early archosaurs from Russia". In Benton, M.J.; Shishkin, M.A.; and Unwin, D.M.. The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 140–159. ISBN 052154582X, 9780521545822. 
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