Gondwanosaurus bijoriensis, Lydekker, 1885

GONDWANOSAURUS BIJORIENSIS LYDEKKER, 1885

Holotype: GSI 2202 View Materials , a poorly preserved large skull and mandible, articulated with the anterior part of the axial skeleton, including the pectoral girdle, c. 15 articulated vertebrae with ribs. Most of the specimen is preserved as a natural mould and originally possessed a ventral scute field that was lost after preparation ( Lydekker, 1885: 2).

Type locality and horizon: Bijori Village, Madhya Pradesh, India. Bijori Formation (Satpuna Basin), Lopingian ( Lydekker, 1885; Werneburg & Schneider, 1996).

Remarks: Lydekker described the specimen and considered it more specialized than Archegosaurus and closer to the ‘higher labyrinthodonts’ such as Mastodonsaurus ( Lydekker, 1885) . Romer included the species within Capitosauroidea ( Romer, 1947: 212), a situation questioned by Watson (1962: 259) and Neaverson, who instead considered it a rhinesuchid ( Neaverson, 1955: 373). More recently, Werneburg & Schneider (1996) also considered the specimen as a rhinesuchid insertae sedis and the taxon as a nomen vanum. Schoch & Milner (2000) consider the specimen as a rhinesuchid and G. bijorensis as a nomen dubium.

Status: The absence of a retroarticular process in the mandible and a ventrally projected paroccipital process, which also extends posteriorly slightly beyond the tip of the tabular horn, allow us to consider the specimen as a rhinesuchid. Nevertheless and according to the original description and figures, the specimen is mostly preserved as a natural mould and lacks further anatomical details. Thus, we considered G. bijorensis a nomen dubium (see discussion nomen dubium vs. nomen vanum in Mones, 1989).