''Jiyuanitectum'' 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 ...

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 ...

tetrapod A tetrapod (; from Ancient Greek :wiktionary:τετρα-#Ancient Greek, τετρα- ''(tetra-)'' 'four' and :wiktionary:πούς#Ancient Greek, πούς ''(poús)'' 'foot') is any four-Limb (anatomy), limbed vertebrate animal of the clade Tetr ...

from the

Late Permian Late or LATE may refer to: Everyday usage * Tardy, or late, not being on time * Late (or the late) may refer to a person who is dead Music * ''Late'' (The 77s album), 2000 * Late (Alvin Batiste album), 1993 * Late!, a pseudonym used by Dave Groh ...

Shangshihezi Formation of China. It is known from a single bony

scute A scute () or scutum (Latin: ''scutum''; plural: ''scuta'' "Scutum (shield), shield") is a bony external plate or scale overlaid with horn, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, and the feet of Bird anatomy#Scales, birds. The ter ...

from

Jiyuan Jiyuan ( zh, s= , t=濟源 , p=Jìyuán) is a sub-prefecture-level city in northwestern Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the prefecture-level cities of Jiaozuo and Luoyang to the east and southwest respectively, as well as ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

province, ascribed to the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

''Jiyuanitectum flatum'' in 2014. Plate-like scutes, which formed armor-like coverings on the backs of chroniosuchians, are the most commonly found chroniosuchian remains. They are also the most informative when it comes to distinguishing between species due to small variations in scute anatomy between different taxa. For example, a shallow groove along the midline of the scute is unique to ''Jiyuanitectum''. The flatness of the scute is another unusual characteristic, giving it the species name ''flatum''. ''Jiyuanitectum'' shares several features in common with the chroniosuchians ''

Synesuchus ''Synesuchus'' is an extinct genus of Bystrowianidae, bystrowianid chroniosuchians from middle Triassic (Ladinian stage) deposits of Komi Republic, northern Fore-Ural (region), Ural of Russia. It is known from the holotype PIN 4466/12, which cons ...

'' and ''

Bystrowiella ''Bystrowiella'' is an extinct genus of Bystrowianidae, bystrowianid chroniosuchians from upper Middle Triassic (Ladinian age) deposits of Kupferzell and Vellberg, northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Discovery and naming It was first named b ...

'', including the upper surface of the scute being covered in ridges that are mostly oriented perpendicular to the midline, and the absence of a bony projection on the front of the scute called the anteromedial articular processes, which is seen in other chroniosuchians. These features suggest that ''Jiyuanitectum'' belongs to the family

Bystrowianidae Bystrowianidae is a family of chroniosuchian tetrapods from the Permian and Triassic periods. Phylogeny Below is the cladogram from Buchwitz ''et al.'' (2012) showing the phylogenetic relations of bystrowianids: Cladogram from Novikov (2018) ...

. The narrowness of the scute suggests that it may be one of the most basal members of the group. The scute of ''Jiyuanitectum'' was found within a diverse Late Permian fossil assemblage in Jiyuan that includes abundant remains of the

pareiasaur Pareiasaurs (meaning "cheek lizards") are an extinct clade of large, herbivorous parareptiles. Members of the group were armoured with osteoderms which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Per ...

Shihtienfenia ''Shihtienfenia'' is an extinct genus of pareiasaurid parareptile from the Late Permian of China. Species Lee (1997) refers to ''S. xuecunensis'' as a metaspecies lacking the autapomorphies of ''Shihtienfenia''. Tsuji & Müller (2009) seem to ...

'' as well as fossils of two other chroniosuchian species: '' Bystrowiana sinica'' and '' Dromotectum largum''. Therapsid remains are also known from the assemblage.

References

Chroniosuchia Lopingian tetrapods Permian tetrapods of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2014 Paleontology in Henan {{paleo-tetrapod-stub