''Bentonyx'' (meaning "Bentons's claw") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

rhynchosaur Rhynchosaurs are a group of extinct herbivorous Triassic archosauromorph reptiles, belonging to the order Rhynchosauria. Members of the group are distinguished by their triangular skulls and elongated, beak like premaxillary bones. Rhynchosaurs ...

from the middle

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

epoch of

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Its fossil, a well preserved

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

BRSUG 27200
was discovered in

Otter Sandstone Formation The Otter Sandstone Formation is an obsolete geological unit in England, now referred to as the Helsby Sandstone Formation.http://www.bgs.ac.uk/Lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=HEY (BGS on-line lexicon of rock units) It preserves fossils dated to the Tr ...

(late

Anisian In the geologic timescale, the Anisian is the lower stage (stratigraphy), stage or earliest geologic age, age of the Middle Triassic series (stratigraphy), series or geologic epoch, epoch and lasted from million years ago until million years ag ...

age) and was first assigned to '' Rhynchosaurus spenceri'', that is known from 25 specimens. This species was reassigned to its own genus, ''

Fodonyx ''Fodonyx'' (meaning "digging claw") is an extinct genus of rhynchosaur from the middle Triassic epoch of Devon in England. Its fossils (25 specimens) were discovered in Otter Sandstone Formation (late Anisian age) and were first assigned to '' R ...

'', that was first described by David W. E. Hone and

Michael Benton Michael James Benton (born 8 April 1956) is a British palaeontologist, and professor of vertebrate paleontology, vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. His published work has mostly concentrated on ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. More recently, this skull was reassigned to this genus by Max C. Langer, Felipe C. Montefeltro, David E. Hone, Robin Whatley and Cesar L. Schultz in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and the type species is ''Bentonyx sidensis''.Paleobiology Database - Bentonyx
/ref> The

Cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below is based on work by

Martin Ezcurra Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

''et al''.

References

Rhynchosauria Middle Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2010 Anisian life Prehistoric reptile genera {{triassic-reptile-stub