Cornualbus primus gen. et sp. nov.: a new procolophonid (Reptilia: Parareptilia) from Upper Triassic of South America, first tetrapod from the Passo das Tropas Member of the Santa Maria Supersequence

Procolophonidae is the most successful Parareptilia group throughout Pangaea. For almost two decades, the study of the most derived South American procolophonids only included the description of new specimens belonging to well-known species, mostly Procolophon trigoniceps. On the basis of a recently collected skull and associated postcranial elements from the early Carnian (Upper Triassic) of Brazil, we describe a new procolophonid, Cornualbus primus gen. et sp. nov. A phylogenetic analysis recovers this new procolophonid within the subfamily Leptopleuroninae, forming a clade with the leptopleuronines Hypsognathus fenneri, Leptopleuron lacertinum, Mandaphon nadra, Hwiccewyrm trispiculum, and Soturnia caliodon. Cornualbus primus bridges a temporal gap in South American procolophonids, which extended from the Induan to the Norian, in addition to being the oldest Leptopleuroninae described for South America. Furthermore, the description of this taxon enriches our knowledge of procolophonid diversity for the South American Triassic period. https://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C95A0DCF-CD53-48DF-B323-490E0569286B