Rhiodenticulatus is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of Early Permian captorinid

Captorhinidae

Captorhinidae is one of the earliest and most basal reptile families.-Description:...

 known from Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

 of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

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Description

Rhiodenticulatus is known from the holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 UCMP 35757, three-dimensionally preserved nearly complete skull

Skull

The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...

 and postcrania

Postcrania

Postcrania[p] in zoology and vertebrate paleontology refers to all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g...

l elements, and from the referred specimens, which come from a second individual, UCMP 40209 and UCMP 40210. All specimens were collected in the Camp Quarry (UCMP V-2814 locality), from the Cutler Formation

Cutler Formation

The Cutler is a rock unit that is spread across the U.S. states of Arizona, northwest New Mexico, southeast Utah and southwest Colorado. It was laid down in the Early Permian during the Wolfcampian stage. In Arizona and Utah it is often called the Cutler Group but the preferred USGS name is Cutler...

 of New Mexico, dating to the Sakmarian

Sakmarian

In the geologic timescale, the Sakmarian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian epoch or series. The Sakmarian lasted between 294.6 ± 0.8 and 284.4 ± 0.7 million years ago...

 stage of the early Cisuralian Series

Series (stratigraphy)

Series are subdivisions of rock layers made based on the age of the rock and corresponding to the dating system unit called an epoch, both being formally defined international conventions of the geological timescale. A series is therefore a sequence of rock depositions defining a...

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Etymology

Rhiodenticulatus was first named by David S. Berman and Robert R. Reisz

Robert R. Reisz

Robert Rafael Reisz is a Canadian paleontologist and specialist in the study of early amniote and tetrapod evolution.Robert Reisz was born August 27, 1947, in Oradea, Romania. He received his B.Sc. , M.Sc. and Ph.D. from McGill University as Robert L. Carroll’s first doctoral graduate...

 in 1986

1986 in paleontology

-Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.-New taxa:-Pterosaurs:...

 and the type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 is Rhiodenticulatus heatoni. The generic name is derived from Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, meaning "nose with small teeth". The specific name honors the paleontologist Malcolm J. Heaton.