Stanocephalosaurus

Stanocephalosaurus Temporal range: Anisian ~247–242 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Cast of a Stanocephalosaurus birdi palate taken from a natural impression
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	†Temnospondyli
Suborder:	†Stereospondyli
Clade:	†Capitosauria
Family:	†Mastodonsauridae
Genus:	†Stanocephalosaurus Brown, 1933
Species
†S. birdi Brown, 1933(type) †S. amenasensis Dahoumane, Nedjari, Ait-Ouali, Taquet, Vacant, and Steyer, 2016 †S. pronus Howie, 1970(type) †S. rajareddyi Sengupta, 2003(type)

Stanocephalosaurus (stano from Greek stenos, meaning “narrow”, cephalo from Greek kephalē, meaning “head”) is an extinct genus of large-sized temnospondyls living through the early to mid Triassic. The etymology of its name most likely came from its long narrow skull when compared to other temnospondyls. Stanocephalosaurus lived an aquatic lifestyle, with some species even living in salt lakes.^[1] There are currently three recognized species and another that needs further material to establish its legitimacy. The three known species are Stanocephalosaurus pronus from the Middle Triassic in Tanzania,^[2] Stanocephalosaurus amenasensis from the Lower Triassic in Algeria,^[3] and Stanocephalosaurus birdi, from the middle Triassic in Arizona.^[4] Stanocephalosaurus rajareddyi from the Middle Triassic in central India needs further evidence in order to establish its relationship among other Stanocephalosaurs.^[5] Like other temnospondyls, Stanocephalosaurus was an aquatic carnivore. Evidence of multiple species discovered in a wide range of localities proves that Stanocephalosaurus were present all across Pangea throughout the early to mid Triassic.^[3]