''Oryctorhynchus'' is an extinct genus of

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

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

(

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Triassic series (stratigraphy), Series (or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Triassic Epoch (reference date), Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227.3 ...

Norian The Norian is a division of the Triassic geological period, Period. It has the rank of an age (geology), age (geochronology) or stage (stratigraphy), stage (chronostratigraphy). It lasted from ~227.3 to Mya (unit), million years ago. It was prec ...

)-aged

Wolfville Formation The Wolfville Formation is a Triassic geologic formation of Nova Scotia. The formation is of Carnian to early Norian age. Fossils of small land vertebrates have been found in the formation, including procolophonid and early archosauromorph rep ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

that may have been the same animal as '' Beesiiwo''. The type species, ''O. bairdi'', was named and described in 2020. It was originally seen as a species of ''

Hyperodapedon ''Hyperodapedon'' (from , 'above' and , 'pavement') is an extinct genus of rhynchosaur reptiles which lived during Triassic, Late Triassic period. Like other rhynchosaurs, it was an heavily built Archosauromorpha, archosauromorph, distantly rel ...

'' until 2020.

Discovery and naming

The holotype was discovered in the

by Donald Baird; its earliest known mention is by Baird (1963). Shortly after, it was informally named the "Nova Scotia ''

''" (''H''. sp.) by Robin Whatley in a 1984 paper published by J. A. Hopson. It was briefly described by Michael Benton (1983) also as a species of ''Hyperodapedon''.Benton, M.J. (1983). The Triassic reptile ''

'' from Elgin: functional morphology and relationships. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London'' B 302: 605-717. It was then assigned to cf. "''Hyperodapedon''" ''sanjuanensis'' by Lucas ''et'' ''al''., (2002). The genus was not recognised as a distinct taxon until it was named in 2020. The holotype, NSM018GF009.012, consists of a partial jaw and several skull fragments including the

rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit ** podium * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...

and

skull roof The skull roof or the roofing bones of the skull are a set of bones covering the brain, eyes and nostrils in bony fishes, including land-living vertebrates. The bones are derived from dermal bone and are part of the dermatocranium. In com ...

. Fitch ''et al.'' (2023) state that specimen NSM018GFF009.003 has "No unique support for eing''Oryctorhynchus bairdi'', and heydo not consider it a part of ''O . bairdi''. These attributes better align with those found in '' Beesiiwo cooowuse''... heysuggest it is either a close relative of ''Beesiiwo'' or a member of such."

Etymology

The genus name consists of the ''orycto''

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

, which means ''burrow'', and the ''rhynchus''

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

, meaning ''snout''; the full genus name means ''burrowed snout''. The epithet honours David Baird, for his work on

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 ...

tetrapods A tetrapod (; from Ancient Greek τετρα- ''(tetra-)'' 'four' and πούς ''(poús)'' 'foot') is any four- limbed vertebrate animal of the clade Tetrapoda (). Tetrapods include all extant and extinct amphibians and amniotes, with the lat ...

from

Classification

Sues ''et al.'' (2020) placed ''Oryctorhynchus'' as the sister species to ''

'' and an unnamed hyperodapedontine taxon from

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

Paleoecology

''Oryctorhynchus'' is from the

(Upper Wolfville Member; Fundy Basin), which probably corresponds to the

Popo Agie Formation The Popo Agie Formation ( )Locally "po-PO-zha" according to Don Pitcher, 2006, ''Moon Handbooks Wyoming,'' p. 26/ref>More ambiguous transcription of "po-po-zsha" at is a Triassic geologic Formation (geology), formation that outcrop, crops out in ...

. The age of the Upper Wolfville Member is unclear; it either dates from the latest Carnian? - earliest Norian? or the late Carnian (~230 Ma). It would have coexisted with '' Acadiella'',H.-D. Sues and D. Baird. (1998). Procolophonidae (Reptilia: Parareptilia) from the Upper Triassic Wolfville Formation of Nova Scotia, Canada. ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 18(3):525-532 '' Arctotraversodon'', '' ''Arctosuchus buceros'' (?)'', '' Haligonia'', '' Scoloparia'' and ''

Teraterpeton ''Teraterpeton'' (meaning "wonderful creeping thing" in Greek (language), Greek) is an extinct genus of trilophosaurid archosauromorphs. It is known from a partial skeleton from the Late Triassic Wolfville Formation of Nova Scotia, described in ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q97999460 Paleontology in Nova Scotia Triassic Canada Fossils of Canada Rhynchosauria Late Triassic reptiles of North America Carnian genera Norian genera Fossil taxa described in 2020 Prehistoric reptile genera