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Basutodon

Extinct genus of reptiles

Basutodon is a genus of suchian archosaur from the Late Triassic (late Norian-early Rhaetian) Lower Elliot Formation of Lesotho. The type species is B. ferox.

01Discovery and naming

The holotype is a single tooth that was discovered alongside the remains of Euskelosaurus browni in the upper Elliot Formation, Lesotho. The species Basutodon ferox was named and described by von Huene (1932).

"Likhoelesaurus ingens", an undescribed archosauriform from the Lower Elliot Formation of South Africa, may have been the same animal as Basutodon ferox.

02Description

Basutodon was once classified as a prosauropod, as with Teratosaurus or as a synonym of Euskelosaurus. It was probably neither of these things, though, and is much more likely to be a dubious non-dinosaur.

Basutodon is currently listed as a basal member of Suchia, although Tolchard et al. (2019) suggested that Basutodon may belong to Rauisuchia.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Basutodon, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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