Vivaxosaurus

Vivaxosaurus is a genus of dicynodont from Late Permian (Changhsingian) of Russia.^[1][2] It has been found at Sokolki on the Northern Dvina River near Kotlas in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lived during the latest Permian, and was a contemporary of Inostrancevia, Scutosaurus and Dvinia. Like all members of the genus, this animal was toothless, except for prominent tusks, and probably cropped vegetation with a horny beak, like a tortoise.

Vivaxosaurus Temporal range: Late Permian
Life restoration of Vivaxosaurus trautscholdi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Synapsida
Order:	Therapsida
Suborder:	Anomodontia
Infraorder:	Dicynodontia
Genus:	Vivaxosaurus Kalandadze & Kurkin, 2000
Species
V. trautscholdi
Synonyms
Fortunodon Kurkin, 2012

History

Restoration based on a juvenile specimen tentatively assigned to Vivaxosaurus

The contemporary species Dicynodon amalitzkii Sushkin, 1926 is closely related (Angielczyk and Kurkin 2003a, 2003b), although according to Lucas 2005, Dicynodon trautscholdi, Dicynodon amalitzkii, Elph borealis, and Vivaxosaurus permirus are all synonyms, which makes D. amalitzkii the junior synonym of D. trautscholdi. Other suggested synonyms are Gordonia annae Amalitskii, 1922, Oudenodon venyokovi Amalitskii, 1922, and Dicynodon annae (Amalitskii, 1922).

In 2011, Vivaxosaurus permirus and Dicynodon trautscholdi were combined as Vivaxosaurus trautscholdi.^[3] This same study also moved D. amalitzkii to the genus Peramodon. In 2012, the species D. trautscholdi was moved to the genus Fortunodon, independently of its synonymization with V. permirus;^[4] this makes Fortunodon a subjective junior synonym of Vivaxosaurus trautscholdi.