page_title: Shringasaurus
section_title: Skull
hierarchical_section_title: Shringasaurus / Description / Skull
caption_attribution_description: English: Life restoration of Shringasaurus indicus.
context_page_description: Shringasaurus is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile from the Middle Triassic of India. It is known from the type and only known species, S. indicus. Shringasaurus is known from the Denwa Formation in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Shringasaurus was an allokotosaur, a group of unusual herbivorous reptiles from the Triassic, and is most closely related to the smaller and better known Azendohsaurus in the family Azendohsauridae. Like some ceratopsid dinosaurs, Shringasaurus had two large horns over its eyes that faced up and forwards from its skull. These horns were likely used for display, and possibly during fights with other Shringasaurus, much like what has been suggested for the horns of ceratopsids like Triceratops. Shringsaurus also bears similarities to sauropodomorph dinosaurs, such as its long neck and teeth, and likely occupied a similar ecological niche as a large browsing herbivore before they had evolved.
context_section_description: The skull of Shringasaurus is not completely known, but what's preserved indicates that the skull was small and boxy, with a short, deep snout with rounded jaw tips and bony nostrils fused into a single, confluent opening at the front of the snout. This is broadly similar to the completely known skull of Azendohsaurus, however the lower jaw of Shringasaurus has a more conspicuous taper towards the tip compared to the deep, down-turned dentary of Azendohsaurus.
  The horns of Shringasaurus closely resemble those seen in ceratopsid dinosaurs, despite being totally unrelated to each other. The horns are attached to the frontal bones on the roof of the skull over the eyes, and sit across almost the entire breadth of the skull. These horns are pointed up and curve forwards from the skull, with slight variation in size and orientation between large individuals. Smaller and younger individuals had smaller, more gracile horns, indicating that the horns did not fully develop until the animals were mature. Intriguingly, at least one small specimen lacks horns entirely, whereas another similarly small specimen has small but well developed horns. It is suggested then that Shringasaurus was sexually dimorphic, and that possibly the females lacked horns.
  The horns themselves have a rough, grooved texture that implies they were covered with a keratinous sheath of horn in life, also like ceratopsid horns, and so would have likely been longer than the bony cores indicate. The bones of the skull beneath the horns are unusually thick, and in the larger individuals the bones of roof of the skull (the nasal, prefrontal, frontal and postfrontal) are fused together on each side.
   
  The teeth of Shringasaurus are low and leaf-shaped (lanceolate) with large denticles on either side, similar in shape to those of Azendohsaurus but lacking the prominent expansion above the root, like the teeth of Pamelaria. Because the skull and jaws are incompletely known, the total tooth count of Shringasaurus is unknown, but like Azendohsaurus it had four teeth in each premaxilla. Shringasaurus also had numerous palatal teeth (though known only from the vomer thus far), and like Azendohsaurus they are uniquely as well developed as the marginal teeth along the edge of the jaw. Like them, they were leaf-shaped and serrated, but in Shringasaurus the palatal teeth are even more lanceolate than the marginal rows. Such palatal teeth are unusual, as most other herbivorous reptiles with them have much simpler, domed palatal teeth, and palatal teeth identical to those of the jaw margins are otherwise only found in the related allokotosaurs Azendohsaurus and Teraterpeton.
caption: Life restoration
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