Species in news: Rewaconodon Indicus 

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.