field that would become the Navajo Sandstone. The animals here were adapted to a seasonal climate and abundant water could be found in streams, ponds and lakes. Paleofauna Oligokyphus lived beneath the feet of dinosaurs, such as the theropods Dilophosaurus, Kayentavenator Coelophysis? kayentakatae, the basal sauropodomorph Sarahsaurus, heterodontosaurids, and the armored dinosaur Scutellosaurus. The Kayenta Formation has produced that remains of three coelophysoid taxa of different body size, which represents the most diverse ceratosaur fauna yet known. The Kayenta Formation has yielded a small but growing assemblage of organisms. Vertebrates present here at the time of Oligokyphus included hybodont sharks, bony fish known as osteichthyes, lungfish, salamanders, the frog Prosalirus, the caecilian Eocaecilia, the turtle Kayentachelys, a sphenodontian reptile, various lizards. Also present were the synapsids Dinnebiton and Kayentatherium, several early crocodylomorphs including Calsoyasuchus, Eopneumatosuchus, Kayentasuchus, and Protosuchus), and the pterosaur Rhamphinion. The possible presence of the early true mammal Dinnetherium, and a haramyid mammal has also been proposed, based on fossil finds. Vertebrate trace fossils from this area included coprolites and the tracks of therapsids, lizard-like animals, and dinosaurs, which provided evidence that these animals were also present. Non-vertebrates in this ecosystem included microbial or "algal" limestone, freshwater bivalves, freshwater mussels and snails, and ostracods. The plant life known from this area included trees that became preserved as petrified wood. Reproduction It is very likely that Oligokyphus had parental care. This is assumed to be true because most derived cynodonts have several traits associated with parental care in modern mammals. Tritylodontids possess evidence of diphyodonty, a trait associated with suckling and therefore the production of milk. Oligokyphus, like other tritylodontids, possesses epipubic bones, which would have prevented the expansion of the torso and forced it to give birth to larval young like modern marsupials and monotremes. References Works cited External links Tritylodontids Prehistoric cynodont genera Late Triassic synapsids Jurassic synapsids Late Triassic first appearances Early Jurassic extinctions Triassic synapsids of Asia Triassic synapsids of Europe Triassic synapsids of North America Fossil taxa described in 1922 Taxa named by Friedrich von Huene