Rutiotomodon

Rutiotomodon is an extinct genus of trilophosaurid allokotosaur from the Middle Triassic of Germany.

Discovery

Rutiotomodon was found in the Erfurt Formation. It is known from two jaw fragments: a right maxilla and a referred partial dentary that bears similarities to that of Trilophosaurus buettneri. It was described during 2023 by Hans-Dieter Sues and Rainer R. Schoch.

Etymology

The genus Rutiotomodon is derived from the Greek 'rhytis', which mean 'wrinkle' or 'fold', 'tomō' which means 'to cut', and 'odon', which means tooth. This means that it means wrinkled cut tooth, in reference to the ridges on the teeth in both the maxilla and dentary.
The type species of Rutiotomodon is R. tytthos. 'Tytthos' is the Greek for small thus making the name for this species mean 'small wrinkled cut tooth.

Classification

In an analysis that was part of the species being named, Rutiotomodon was found to be more derived than Teraterpeton, in an unresolved polytomy with Coelodontognathus, which was recovered as a trilophosaurid.

Paleobiology

Sues has suggested that Rutiotomodon may have had a small beak whilst the jaws had tightly packed teeth with broad crowns for crushing plant matter.