Karutia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Karutia Temporal range: Early Permian, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | †Parareptilia |
| Order: | †Procolophonomorpha |
| Family: | †Acleistorhinidae |
| Genus: | †Karutia Cisneros et al., 2021 |
| Type species | |
| †Karutia fortunata Cisneros et al., 2021 | |
Karutia is an extinct genus of parareptile known from the Early Permian Pedra de Fogo Formation of Brazil. The type species is Karutia fortunata.[1]
The species name refers to the fact that the research team was lucky in finding the fossil while having changing a flat tyre.[1]
The fossil was discovered in 2016, being the third amnniote from the Pedra de Fogo Formation and the first acleistorhinid from Gondwana. The rock itself was found in a mudstone paving quarry, on the municipality of Nazária, Piauí. The name Karutia derives from the word kàruti of the local Timbira language, meaning 'skin covered by lumps or rugosities', in reference to the ornamentation on the cranial bones. The specific name, K. fortunata, comes from the Latin adjective fortunatus, meaning 'lucky', as it refers to the lucky discovery of the fossil while the research team fixed as flat tyre.[1]
Description
A majority of the bones, excluding some palatal elements and vertebrae, where found disarticulated. Furthermore, some elements could not be identified given their fragmentary nature. Based on more complete acleistorhinid material, the skull of Karutia was estimated to be 40 mm in length, and the whole skeleton to be 250 mm in length. The skull possesses cranial sculpturing, varying between bones, with rugosities, furrows, bosses of various sizes and tiny pits. Many of these pits are irregular and vary from the circular pits of Acleistorhinus, Colobomycter and Microleter.[1]
