Vonhuenia Explained

Vonhuenia (named after Friedrich von Huene) is an extinct genus of proterosuchid, a basal archosauriform from the Early Triassic of Russia. Fossils have been found in the Vokhminskaya Formation, along the Vetluga River that are Induan in age, making Vonhuenia one of the earliest archosauriforms.^[1]

Classification

The type species V. friedrichi, named in 1992, is based on material that was misassigned to the genus Chasmatosuchus by Ochev (1978).^[2] Although originally classified as a proterosuchid, a 2016 cladistic analysis by Ezcurra et al. recovered it as a non-eucrocopodan archosauriform of uncertain position.^[3] However, a 2023 cladistic analysis of the Proterosuchidae, again by Ezcurra et al., again recovered Vonhuenia as a proterosuchid, specifically as a basal member of the subfamily Chasmatosuchinae. The earliest known proterosuchid and archosauromorph, Archosaurus, is also placed in Chasmatosuchinae but is thought to be more derived than Vonhuenia, suggesting that the ancestors of Vonhuenia diverged from other chasmatosuchines during the Late Permian.^[4]

Paleobiology

Vonhuenia was a small archosauriform that lived alongside amphibians like Tupilakosaurus and Luzocephalus, small reptiles like Phaanthosaurus, and the large-bodied dicynodont Lystrosaurus in the earliest Triassic.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Shishkin, M.A. . Ochev, V.G. . Lozovskii, V.R. . Novikov, I.V. . 2000 . Tetrapod biostratigraphy of the Triassic of Eastern Europe . The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia . Benton, M.J. . Kurochkin, E.N. . Shishkin, M.A. . Unwin, D.M. . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 140–159 . 978-0-521-54582-2.
2. Book: Sennikov, A.G. . Gower, D.J. . 2000 . Early archosaurs from Russia . The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia . Benton, M.J. . Shishkin, M.A. . Unwin, D.M. . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 140–159 . 978-0-521-54582-2.
3. Ezcurra, M.D. (2016),The phylogenetic relationships of basal archosauromorphs, with an emphasis on the systematics of proterosuchian archosauriforms. PeerJ4:e1778;DOI10.7717/peerj.1778
4. 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 .
5. Sennikov . A.G. . 1996 . Evolution of the Permian and Triassic tetrapod communities of Eastern Europe . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology . 120 . 3–4 . 331–351 . 10.1016/0031-0182(95)00041-0. 1996PPP...120..331S .