New anatomical evaluation of Stenaulorhynchus stockleyi cranium, a Mesotriassic rhyncosaur from Tanzania, based on computerized tomography.

• Grant number: 24/10928-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Max Cardoso Langer
• Grantee: Lucas Adriano de Siqueira Miranda
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Stenaulorhynchus stockleyi is one of the most abundant species found in the fossil beds of the Manda Formation, Mesotriassic of Tanzania, including some of the most complete rhynchosaur material discovered until present day. The most well preserved cranium of S. stockleyi was first described in the Thirties by Von Heune, at this time it was a common practice to reconstrude missing parts of a fossil with clay. Considering the problems this practice may have caused to the description and still may cause in present day observations and discussions this study conducts a new anatomical evaluation of the GPIT/RE/7192 specimen, based on a tridimensional model generated by computational tomography (CT-scan). The observation of this model allows the identification of reconstitutions more easily as well as its separation from the fossil components. The CT-scan makes possible, for the first time, the investigation of the specimen's dentition, something of great taxonomic value that was inaccessible due to the fossil's preservation. The new analysis will gather information for a more accurate phylogenetic positioning of the species in Rhynchosauria, as well as the identification and/or confirmation of evolutive tendencies in the group along the Triassic.