Name:
Aetobarbakinoides
(long legged form?).
Phonetic: Ay-toe-bar-bak-in-oy-deez.
Named By: Julia B. Desojo, Martin D. Ezcurra
& Edio E. Kischlat - 2012.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Aetosauria,
Stagonolepididae.
Species: A. brasiliensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated to be about 2 meters long.
Known locations: Brazil - Santa Maria
Formation, Alemoa Member.
Time period: Carnian to Norian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial skeleton
that was partially articulated.
Aetobarbakinoides
is considered to be one of the oldest aetosaurs
currently known to us.
Only Aetosauroides
from Argentina and Stagonolepis
from Scotland can
match Aetobarbakinoides for age, but together
they show that even in
the earliest known appearances of aetosaurs, they were already
widespread across what would become South America and Europe.
Aetobarbakinoides
is the first aetosaur that has been named from a description focused
upon something else other than the appearance of the osteoderm armour.
Instead of the armour, the description of Aetobarbakinoides
was
based upon the appearance of the vertebrae. Although the vertebrae of
Aetobarbakinoides are noted to bear similarities
with the vertebrae of
Desmatosuchus,
they are still very different to any other currently
known aetosaur.
In
life Aetobarbakinoides would have been like other
aetosaurs in that it
would have been a squat quadrupedal reptile that was protected from the
teeth of predators by an arrangement of osteoderm armour across the
back. Although the skull of Aetobarbakinoides is
unknown at the time
of writing, other aeotsaurs are known to have been herbivorous
without any exceptions known so far, so by association
Aetobarbakinoides probably had a herbivorous diet.
Further reading
- A new aetosaur genus (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia) from the
early Late Triassic of southern Brazil. - J. B. Desojo, M.
D. Ezcurra & E. E. Kischlat - 2012.