Younginiformes

Acerosodontosaurus piveteaui, an aquatic reptile whose fossil remains have been found in Madagascar.

• Madagascar
• South Africa
• East Africa

The Younginiformes, formerly called Eosuchia, are an extinct taxon diapsider reptiles from the Upper Permian and the Lower Triassic. There were medium-sized, lizard -like animals that fed insectivor or carnivore. Some, such as those found in Madagascar and East Africa genera Acerosodontosaurus and Hovasaurus lived aquatic. They differed from the terrestrial living only by their flattened tail, but had stones in the abdominal cavity, which probably served as ballast.

The taxon is possibly paraphyletic because of them possibly the Lepidosauromorpha have emerged.

Features

The distal neck and the elements of the limbs are much shorter than in the Araeoscelidia. The animals had a single coracoid, the Tabulare ( a skull bone ) was missing. The eddy had transverse transverse processes and relatively high Neuralfortsätze. The columella, a bone in the middle ear, which is convergent to the stirrup of mammals was great. A sternum was present, as well as the Cleithrum, a bone is no longer present in modern reptiles. Foot and tarsus were primitive.

Genera

• Acerosodontosaurus
• Youngina
• Hovasaurus
• Tangasaurus
• Thadeosaurus