Rhynchosauria

Rhynchosaurs are a group of extinct herbivorous Triassic archosauromorph reptiles, belonging to the order Rhynchosauria. Members of the group are distinguished by their triangular skulls and elongated, beak like premaxillary bones. Rhynchosaurs first appeared in the Early Triassic, reaching their broadest abundance and a global distribution during the Carnian stage of the Late Triassic.

Rhynchosaurs were herbivores, and at times abundant (in some fossil localities accounting for 40 to 60% of specimens found), with stocky bodies and a powerful beak. Early primitive forms, like Mesosuchus and Howesia, were generally small, typically lizard-like in build, and had skulls rather similar to the early diapsid Youngina, except for the beak and a few other features. Later and more advanced genera grew to up to two meters in length. The skull in these forms were short, broad, and triangular, becoming much wider than long in the most advanced forms like Hyperodapedon with a deep cheek region, and the premaxilla extending outwards and downwards to form the upper beak. The broad skull would have accommodated powerful jaw muscles. The lower jaw was also deep, and when the mouth was closed it clamped firmly into the maxilla (upper jaw), like the blade of a penknife closing into its handle. This scissors-like action would have enabled rhynchosaurs to cut up tough plant material.

The teeth were unusual; those in the maxilla and palate were modified into broad tooth plates. The hind feet were equipped with massive claws, presumably for digging up roots and tubers by backwards scratching of the hind limbs. They had a fixed number of teeth, and similar to elephants, those that were further back in the jaws replaced teeth that were worn out as the animal grew in size and the teeth were worn out because of a diet of very tough plants. Rhynchosaur teeth were ankylothecodont, similar to the acrodonty of modern tuataras and some lizards but differing in the presence of deep roots.

Rhynchosaurs first appeared during the Induan, the first stage of the Triassic, appearing shortly after the end-Permian mass extinction, as part of a major diversification of reptiles during this period. Like many animals of this time, they had a worldwide distribution, being found across Pangea, being especially common in the southern Gondwanan part of Pangaea, though with records also in Europe and North America. Over their evolution, rhynchosaurs saw a progressive increase in their body size. It has been suggested that rhynchosaurs went extinct extinct at the end of the Carnian stage during the early Late Triassic as part of an end-Carnian extinction event. Spielmann, Lucas and Hunt (2013) described three distal ends of humeri from early-mid Norian Bull Canyon Formation in New Mexico, which they interpreted as bones of rhynchosaurs belonging to the species Otischalkia elderae; thus, the fossils might indicate that rhynchosaurs survived until the Norian. These fossils were later reinterpreted as belonging to malerisaurine azendohsaurids.

Historically, rhynchosaurs were considered to be closely related to Rhynchocephalia, the clade that includes the living tuatara and its extinct relatives. Today however the two groups are considered to be unrelated, and rhynchosaurs are considered to be archosauromorphs, more closely related to modern crocodilians and birds than to rhynchocephalians and lizards, as members of the archosauromorph subclade Crocopoda.

Cladogram of Archosauromorpha after Schoch et al. 2025:

The Rhynchosauria included a single family, named Rhynchosauridae. All rhynchosaurs, apart from the four Early and Middle Triassic monospecific genera, Eohyosaurus, Mesosuchus, Howesia and Noteosuchus, are included in this family. Hyperodapedontidae named by Lydekker (1885) was considered its junior synonym. However, Langer et al. (2000) noted that Hyperodapedontidae was erected by Lydekker to include Hyperodapedon gordoni and H. huxleyi, clearly excluding Rhynchosaurus articeps, which was the only other rhynchosaur known at that time. Thus, they defined it as the stem-based taxon that includes all rhynchosaurs more closely related to Hyperodapedon than to Rhynchosaurus.

Within Hyperodapedontidae, which is now a subgroup of Rhynchosauridae, two subfamilies have been named. Stenaulorhynchinae named by Kuhn (1933) is defined sensu Langer and Schultz (2000) to include all species more closely related to Stenaulorhynchus than to Hyperodapedon. Hyperodapedontinae named by Chatterjee (1969) was redefined by Langer et al. (2000) to include "all rhynchosaurs closer to Hyperodapedon than to "Rhynchosaurus" spenceri" (now Fodonyx).