Venkatasuchus Temporal range: Late Triassic
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Life restoration of Venkatasuchus armatus | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauria |
Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
Order: | †Aetosauria |
Family: | †Stagonolepididae |
Tribe: | †Paratypothoracini |
Genus: | †Venkatasuchus Haldar, Ray & Bandyopadhyay, 2023 |
Species: | †V. armatum
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Binomial name | |
†Venkatasuchus armatum Haldar, Ray & Bandyopadhyay, 2023
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Venkatasuchus is an extinct genus of aetosaur from the Late Triassic Dharmaram Formation of India. It was described in 2023 on the basis of a series of associated osteoderms that formed the paramedian and lateral armour. Based on the osteoderms the carapace of Venkatasuchus was disc-shaped and very wide, with curved, horn-like elements along its sides. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that Venkatasuchus belonged to the subfamily Typothoracinae and more specifically the clade Paratypothoracini, where it is recovered as the sister taxon to Kocurypelta. Venkatasuchus is among the few aetosaurs recovered from the region that would later become Gondwana and lends credence to the idea that late Triassic India represented a connective hub between Laurasian and Gondwanan fauna. The genus is monotypic, meaning it only includes a single species, Venkatasuchus armatum.