Phonodus

Phonodus is an extinct genus of procolophonid parareptile. It is known from a single skull found from the Early Triassic Katberg Formation in South Africa. It is the oldest known member of the subfamily Leptopleuroninae, and was likely the result of a procolophonid migration into the Karoo Basin from Laurasia after the Permo-Triassic extinction event. Because Phonodus had large maxillary teeth underneath a large antorbital buttress (a bony prominence in front of the eye), and a lack of ventral temporal emargination along the side of the skull, it probably had a durophagous diet.^[1]

Phonodus Temporal range: Early Triassic
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	†Parareptilia
Order:	†Procolophonomorpha
Family:	†Procolophonidae
Subfamily:	†Leptopleuroninae
Genus:	†Phonodus Modesto et al., 2010
Type species
†Phonodus dutoitorum Modesto et al., 2010

Phylogeny

A cladogram after Modesto et al. (2010):^[1]

Leptopleuroninae	Pentaedrusaurus ordosianus Neoprocolophon asiaticus Phonodus dutoitorum clade "N" Sclerosaurus armatus Scoloparia glyphanodon Leptopleuron lacertinum Soturnia caliodon Hypsognathus fenneri

References

1. Modesto, S.P.; Scott, D.M.; Botha-Brink, J.; Reisz, R.R. (2010). "A new and unusual procolophonid parareptile from the Lower Triassic Katberg Formation of South Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (3): 715–723. Bibcode:2010JVPal..30..715M. doi:10.1080/02724631003758003. S2CID 84563475.