''Cherninia'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

mastodonsaurid Mastodonsauridae is a family of capitosauroid temnospondyls. Fossils belonging to this family have been found in North America, Greenland, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The family Capitosauridae is synonymous with Mastodonsauridae. Description ...

temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') is a diverse order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carb ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

, ''Cherninia denwai'', is known from the Denwa Formation of

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It is based on a massive skull, ISI A 54, which was originally considered a species of ''

Parotosuchus ''Parotosuchus'' is an extinct genus of capitosaurian temnospondyl amphibians within the family Mastodonsauridae. Fossils are known from the Early Triassic of Europe, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. It was about long and likely lived in aq ...

'' in 1998 before being given its own genus in 2001. Another species, ''Cherninia megarhina'', is known from the Upper

Ntawere Formation The Ntawere Formation is a Middle Triassic (Anisian) geological formation in Zambia, preserving fossils of synapsids, archosaurs, and temnospondyls. Geology Several different facies are present in the Ntawere Formation, reconstructing a floodpla ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are ...

. ''C. megarhina'' is based on another large skull, BP/1/4223, which had also been previously referred to ''Parotosuchus''. Though not as well-preserved as the skull of ''C. denwai'', BP/1/4233 was described earlier in 1974. It was described by Sharon Chernin, a paleontologist at the Bernard Price Institute and the namesake of the genus.

References

Prehistoric amphibians of Africa Triassic temnospondyls of Asia Prehistoric amphibians of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2001 Prehistoric amphibian genera {{Triassic-animal-stub