Kudnu

Kudnu is an extinct genus of neodiapsid reptile from the Early Triassic Arcadia Formation of Australia.^[1] The type species is K. mackinlayi.^[2]

Kudnu Temporal range: Early Triassic, ~251–247 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype skull QM F9181 (top) and referred skull QM F9182 (bottom)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Neodiapsida
Genus:	†Kudnu Bartholomai, 1979
Species:	†K. mackinlayi
Binomial name
†Kudnu mackinlayi Bartholomai, 1979

Discovery and naming

The holotype is QM F9181, an anterior section of a cranium with articulated dentary rami, and it was discovered in the Crater, southwest of Rolleston, Queensland.^[3] The referred skull QM F9182 is also known.^[4]

Kudnu mackinlayi was named and described by Alan Bartholomai in 1979.^[2]

Classification

Kudnu was initially classified within Paliguanidae by Bartholomai (1979). Benton (1985) classified Kudnu within Lepidosauromorpha,^[5] while Evans (2003) classified Kudnu within Prolacertiformes,^[6] and Evans & Jones (2010) later assigned Kudnu to the Procolophonidae.^[7] More recent authors, such as Poropat et al. (2023), consider Kudnu to be a basal member of Neodiapsida.^[4]

Paleoecology

The world Kudnu inhabited was still recovering from the recent Permian–Triassic extinction event, and as a result global biodiversity had remained low throughout much of the Early Triassic.^[8] The world at this time was generally a hot and arid environment, reaching a temperature of 50 °C or even 60 °C at times.^[9]

Currently a high diversity of fauna has so far been recorded from the Arcadia Formation that lived alongside Kudnu. This includes a high diversity of amphibians including 14 genera,^[10] the archosauriform Kalisuchus rewanensis,^[11] the archosauromorph Kadimakara australiensis,^[1] the procolophonid Eomurruna yurrgensis^[12] as well as an indeterminate dicynodont.^[13]

There is also evidence of a diversity of indermitae ichnotaxa based on coprolites.^[14]