Panchetocynodon damodarensis, a New Cynodont from the Lower Triassic of India

Das, D. P., and A. Gupta. 2012. New cynodont record from the lower Triassic Panchet Formation, Damodar valley. Earth and Environmental Science Journal of the Geological Society of India Volume 79, Number 2, 175-180 DOI: 10.1007/s12594-012-0022-2


Abstract - This paper reports the find of a new non-mammalian cynodont from the Lower Triassic Panchet Formation of the Damodar valley, West Bengal, India. The fossil, recovered from a clay pellet rich calcareous sandstone bed, is a part of left lower jaw having five post canines that are damaged to various extents. A combination of mammal-like advanced characters such as much enlarged dentary, reduced post dentary bones, high coronoid process, large masseteric fossa, each post canine with a large central cusp flanked by a distal and a mesial accessory cusps with two additional lingually positioned cingular cusps, incipient root division and clearly demarcated crown-root juncture prompted to erect a new taxon Panchetocynodon damodarensis gen. et sp. nov.