Reanalysing GPIT/RE/7192 (Stenaulorhynchus stockleyi, Rhynchosauria, Archosauromorpha): biomechanic investigations based on new CT-scan data

• Grant number: 25/08473-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 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
• Supervisor: Gabriel de Souza Ferreira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Senckenberg Centre For Human Evolution And Palaeoenvironment, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/10928-5 - New anatomical evaluation of Stenaulorhynchus stockleyi cranium, a Mesotriassic rhyncosaur from Tanzania, based on computerized tomography., BP.MS

Abstract

Stenaulorhynchus stockleyi is one of the most abundant species found in the fossil beds of the Manda Formation, Middle Triassic of Tanzania, including some of the most complete rhynchosaur specimens discovered so far. The best-preserved cranium of S. stockleyi was first described during the thirties by Friedrich Von Heune, at a time when it was a common practice to reconstruct missing parts of fossils with clay and/or plaster. Considering the problems this practice may have caused to that first description, and still causes nowadays for the observation and analysis of GPIT/RE/7192, we generated a tri dimensional model of the specimen using computational tomography (CT- scan), which more easily allows the separation of reconstitutions from the fossil components. For example, the lower bar of the infratemporal fenestra is totally reconstituted, which is vital information considering that there are rhynchosaur species with and without a complete lower temporal bar connecting the jugal and quadratojugal. Other reconstituted parts have been spotted, such as the entire posterior portion of the pterygoid and parts of the post-orbital, opening space for investigation.