Vitalia

Ecuador

Vitalia is an extinct genus of reptile from the Early Triassic period. It was first identified based on the type species V. grata, which is known from three dentary specimens housed at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The fossils were collected from the Lipovskaya Formation of the Gamskii Horizon at the Donskaya Luka Locality near the village of Sirotinskaya in Volgograd Oblast, European Russia. While originally described as a procolophonid parareptile in 1973, later research reclassified the taxon as a possible trilophosaurid archosauromorph.

Vitalia is considered similar to other possible trilophosaurids from the same locality, such as Coelodontognathus and Doniceps. It shares characteristics with procolophonids, including wide teeth, but is distinguished by having tooth roots set deep into the jaws.

Sources

  1. Vitalia