Dyticonastis information

Dyticonastis; Temporal range: Late Oligocene - Early Miocene
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Rhineuridae
Genus:	†Dyticonastis; Berman, 1976
Type species
	†Dyticonastis rensbergeri; Berman, 1976

Dyticonastis is an extinct genus of amphisbaenians, or worm lizards, that includes a single species, Dyticonastis rensbergeri, that lived during the late Oligocene and early Miocene in what is now Oregon. Fossils of the species come from the John Day Formation. It belongs to Rhineuridae, a family that includes many other extinct North American amphisbaenians but only one living species, Rhineura floridana, from Florida. Dyticonastis rensbergeri occurs the farthest west of all rhineurid species. Like all rhineurids, Dyticonastis has a shovel-like snout adapted for burrowing underground, but it differs from most other members of the group in having a relatively shallow angle to its snout wedge (about 30 degrees) and in having a widened snout tip. The only other rhineurids that share these features are species of the genus Spathorhynchus, which lived from the Middle Eocene to the Early Oligocene in what is now Wyoming. A 2007, phylogenetic analysis of amphisbaenians found that Dyticonastis and Spathorhynchus are each other's closest relatives, suggesting that both taxa may have evolved through vicariant speciation; the growth of the Rocky Mountains during the earliest stages of the Laramide orogeny in the early Paleogene would have separated North American rhineurids into eastern and western populations, with the western population producing Dyticonastis and Spathorhynchus.^[1]

^ Hembree, D.I. (2007). "Phylogenetic revision of Rhineuridae (Reptilia: Squamata: Amphisbaenia) from the Eocene to Miocene of North America". The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions. 15: 1–20.

[HDI07-1] Hembree, D.I. (2007). "Phylogenetic revision of Rhineuridae (Reptilia: Squamata: Amphisbaenia) from the Eocene to Miocene of North America". The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions. 15: 1–20.

Dyticonastis information

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Dyticonastis

Mosasauria

Squamata

Rhineuridae

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Palaeosaniwa

Pumilia

Archaerhineura

Arretosauridae

Asprosaurus

Gobiguania

Archaeovaranus

Stenoplacosaurus

Chamops

Barbatteiidae

Paramacellodus

Bicuspidon

John Day Formation

Dalinghosaurus

Glyptosaurinae

Afairiguana

Becklesius

Isodontosaurus

Bharatagama

Barbaturex

Odaxosaurus

Calanguban

Polyglyphanodontia