UPSC Articles
Species in news: Rewaconodon Indicus
Part of: GS Prelims and GS – III – Environment; Biodiversity
In news
- The Tiki Formation in Madhya Pradesh, a treasure trove of vertebrate fossils, has now yielded a new species and two genera of cynodonts, small rat-like animals that lived about 220 million years ago.
Key takeaways
- Researchers from the IIT Kharagpur, used scanning electron microscopy to study about 10 teeth samples collected from Shahdol District, Madhya Pradesh.
- The results showed that they had found a new species, and they named it Rewaconodon indicus, indicating India, the country it was discovered from.
- The team also identified two new genera from the area.
- The first was named Inditherium floris, after India and the Latin word therium meaning beast.
- As the teeth had a flower-shaped crown, it earned the species name floris.
- The second was named Tikiodon cromptoni, after Tiki Formation and Greek word odon meaning tooth.
- The species name is after paleontologist A.W. Crompton.
Do you know?
- The Tiki Formation is a Late Triassic (Carnian to Norian) geologic formation in Madhya Pradesh.
