Ankistrodon Explained

Ankistrodon is an extinct genus of archosauriform known from the Early Triassic Panchet Formation of India. First thought to be a theropod dinosaur, it was later determined to be a proterosuchid. The type species is A. indicus, described by prolific British zoologist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1865.^[1] One authority in the 1970s classified Ankistrodon as a senior synonym of Proterosuchus.^[2] Ezcurra (2023) found Ankistrodon to be a nomen dubium, as the teeth are indistinguishable from those of Proterosuchus. A second Indian proterosuchid from the same formation, Samsarasuchus, was also described in the same study, making it the only known valid proterosuchid from India.^[3]

Notes and References

1. T. H. Huxley. 1865. On a collection of vertebrate fossils from the Panchet rocks, Ranigunj, Bengal. Palaeontologia Indica 4:1-24
2. Romer . A.S. . 1972 . The Chañares (Argentina) Triassic reptile fauna. XVI. Thecodont classification . Breviora . 395 . 1–24.
3. Ezcurra . Martín D. . Bandyopadhyay . Saswati . Sengupta . Dhurjati P. . Sen . Kasturi . Sennikov . Andrey G. . Sookias . Roland B. . Nesbitt . Sterling J. . Butler . Richard J. . 25 October 2023 . A new archosauriform species from the Panchet Formation of India and the diversification of Proterosuchidae after the end-Permian mass extinction . Royal Society Open Science . en . 10 . 10 . 10.1098/rsos.230387 . 2054-5703 . 10598453 . 37885992. 2023RSOS...1030387E .