Knowra Aetosauria Aetosauria Aetosauria is an extinct clade of heavily armored archosaurs that lived during the Triassic Period. Its members had toothless, beaked snouts and bodies covered in bony plates.
Archosauria : A group of reptiles that includes crocodilians, birds, and their extinct relatives. Aetosaurs are archosaurs, though they are distant from the line leading to living crocodilians and birds.
Aetosaur armor : The arrangement of bony plates covering the body of an aetosaur. Its distinctive dorsal and ventral plates protected the animal and help identify its fossils.
Desmatosuchus : A large, heavily armored aetosaur from the Late Triassic of North America. Its prominent shoulder spikes make it one of the most recognizable aetosaur forms.
Late Triassic : The final epoch of the Triassic Period, lasting from about 237 to 201 million years ago. Most known aetosaur fossils come from this interval, when the clade was widespread.
Crocodylomorpha : A group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes crocodilians and their extinct relatives. Both groups belong to Pseudosuchia, but aetosaurs were armored herbivores rather than crocodile-line predators.
Pseudosuchia : The archosaur branch that includes crocodilians and their extinct relatives. Aetosaurs belong to this branch, which diversified widely during the Triassic.
Aetosaur skull : The skull anatomy characteristic of aetosaurs, including a narrow, toothless snout in many species. Skull shape and tooth reduction support interpretations of specialized plant feeding.
Aetosaurus : A small-bodied aetosaur genus known from Late Triassic fossils in Europe. This genus gives the clade its name and is represented by unusually complete material.
Ischigualasto Formation : A Late Triassic geological formation in Argentina containing diverse terrestrial vertebrate fossils. Its assemblages document aetosaur presence in South American ecosystems.
Ornithischia : A major group of herbivorous dinosaurs that includes stegosaurs, ceratopsians, and their relatives. Aetosaurs were sometimes compared with armored herbivorous dinosaurs, but they were archosaurs outside Dinosauria.
Show all 25