''Bystrowisuchus'' is an extinct

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 ...

ctenosauriscid Ctenosauriscidae is an extinct family of pseudosuchian archosaurs within the clade Poposauroidea. Ctenosauriscids existed in Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 mill ...

pseudosuchian Pseudosuchia, from Ancient Greek ψεύδος (''pseúdos)'', meaning "false", and σούχος (''soúkhos''), meaning "crocodile" is one of two major divisions of Archosauria, including living crocodilians and all archosaurs more closely relat ...

archosaur 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 251.9 Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which ...

of European Russia. Fossils have been found in the

Olenekian In the geologic timescale, the Olenekian is an age (geology), age in the Early Triassic epoch (geology), epoch; in chronostratigraphy, it is a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Lower Triassic series (stratigraphy), series. It spans the time betw ...

-age

Lipovskaya Formation The Yarenskian Gorizont ("Yarenskian Horizon") is a major biostratigraphic unit in Russia corresponding to Upper Olenekian-age terrestrial sediments. It lies above the Ustmylian Gorizont of the Vetlugian Supergorizont, and is located below a shor ...

Ilovlinsky District Ilovlinsky District () is an administrativeLaw #139-OD district (raion), one of the thirty-three in Volgograd Oblast, Russia. As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Ilovlinsky Municipal District.Law #1027-OD It is located in the center of ...

. The type species is ''Bystrowisuchus flerovi''.

Description

''Bystrowisuchus flerovi'' is based on a

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen including six cervical or neck vertebrae and a partial right ilium or hip bone. Its total body length is estimated at .

Discovery

The holotype specimen of ''Bystrowisuchus'' was found near the eastern banks of the

Don River The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...

in Ilovlinsky District,

Volgograd Oblast Volgograd Oblast ( rus, Волгоградская область, p=vəɫɡɐˈgratskəjə ˈobɫəsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region, lower Volga region of Southern Russia ...

. It came from a fossil site known as the Donskaya Luka locality, which preserves a wide diversity of Early Triassic tetrapod fossils. Along with ''Bystrowisuchus'', the Donskaya Luka fossil assemblage includes

temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') or temnospondyls is a diverse ancient order (biology), order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered Labyrinth ...

amphibians, a

chroniosuchia Chroniosuchia is a group of tetrapods that lived from the Middle Permian to Late Triassic in what is now Kyrgyzstan, China and Germany, Eastern Europe. Chroniosuchians are often thought to be reptiliomorphs, but some recent phylogenetic analyses ...

n, a

procolophonid Procolophonidae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like parareptiles known from the Late Permian to Late Triassic that were distributed across Pangaea, having been reported from Europe, North America, China, South Africa, South America, Antarc ...

, a

sauropterygian Sauropterygia ("lizard Flipper (anatomy), flippers") is an extinct taxon of diverse, aquatic diapsid reptiles that developed from terrestrial ancestors soon after the Permian–Triassic extinction event, end-Permian extinction and flourished dur ...

, a

protorosauria Protorosauria is an extinct, likely paraphyletic group of basal archosauromorph reptiles from the latest Middle Permian ( Capitanian stage) to the end of the Late Triassic ( Rhaetian stage) of Asia, Europe and North America. It was named by t ...

n, possible

trilophosaurid Trilophosaurs are lizard-like Triassic allokotosaur reptiles related to the archosaurs. The best known genus is '' Trilophosaurus'', a herbivore up to long. It had a short, unusually heavily built skull, equipped with massive, broad flattened ...

archosauromorph Archosauromorpha (Greek for "ruling lizard forms") is a clade of diapsid reptiles containing all reptiles more closely related to archosaurs (such as crocodilians and dinosaurs, including birds) than to lepidosaurs (such as tuataras, lizards, a ...

s, two

rauisuchid Rauisuchidae is a group of large (up to ) predatory Triassic archosaurs. Some disagreement exists over which genera should be included in the Rauisuchidae and which should be in the related Prestosuchidae and Poposauridae, and indeed whether thes ...

archosaurs, and a

dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivores that typically bore a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, t ...

. Elongated neural spines previously attributed to the rauisuchid '' Scythosuchus basileus'' may belong instead to ''Bystrowisuchus''.

References

Poposauroidea Triassic archosaurs Early Triassic reptiles of Europe Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera {{paleo-archosaur-stub