#aphanosaurs

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 5 - Yarasuchus deccanensis

Neither saurian nor suchian, Yarasuchus was a different type of archosaur called an aphanosaur. Yarasuchus lived in Middle Triassic India, and, unlike many other Triassic reptiles, it was slender and gracile. However, their leg proportions indicate that they were not built for sustained running, and would not have been as fast as many of their dinosaur relatives. There is a lack of jaw material for Yarasuchus, but as its close relative Teleocrater was carnivorous, its likely Yarasuchus was as well. It would have lived alongside dicynodonts Rechnisaurus and Wadiasaurus, the rhyncosaur Mesodapedon, the temnospondyl Parotosuchus, and the lungfish Ceratodus.

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 28 - Teleocrater rhadinus

Not a dinosaur, Teleocrater was a different kind of archosaur called an aphanosaur. This is an ancient group of avemetatarsalians (the clade that includes dinosaurs, pterosaurs, silesaurids, and lagerpetids) hailing from the Triassic, before true dinosaurs even existed. Teleocrater itself is the oldest known archosaur.

Teleocrater was first discovered in 1933 in Tanzania, named in 1956, but was not formerly published until 2017! This was due to a bonebed that contained the fossils of at least three individuals being found in 2015. Teleocrater was carnivorous, about 7-10 feet long, quadrupedal, and had a long neck and tail. Its legs were not adapted for running very fast, and it may have looked and acted more like some kind of warm-blooded monitor lizard than a dinosaur. But it was a representation of things to come.

Originally I gave my rendition some orange and brown stripes, but then I scrapped that and decided to give it “Indoraptor” colors because JW thinks they’re so creative but Nature did Indoraptor first.