Tchoiria

Tchoiria Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Tchoiria klauseni holotype fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Choristodera
Family:	Simoedosauridae
Genus:	Tchoiria Efimov, 1975
Species
T. namsari Efimov, 1975 (type) T. klauseni Ksepka et al., 2005

Front view of T. klauseni holotype

Tchoiria is a genus of simoedosaurid choristodere, a type of crocodile-like aquatic reptile.^[1] Fossils of this genus have been found in Early Cretaceous-age rocks in Mongolia. Four species have been named, but two have been given their own genera. The type species is T. namsari, based on PIN 3386/1, a partial skull and skeleton discovered in the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Hühteeg Formation at Hüren Dukh, central Mongolia. Two other species were named from this locality, with both later being reassigned: T. egloni, now Irenosaurus egloni; and T. magnus, now Ikechosaurus magnus.^[2] A fourth species, T. klauseni, was named from a partial skull and skeleton found in rocks of roughly the same age farther west in Mongolia.^[1]

References

1. Ksepka, D. T.; K.-Q. Gao; Norell, M. A. (2005). "A new choristodere from the Cretaceous of Mongolia" (pdf). American Museum Novitates. 3468: 1–22. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2005)468<0001:ancftc>2.0.co;2.
2. Efimov, Mikhail B.; Storrs, Glenn W. (2000). "Choristodera from the Lower Cretaceous of northern Asia". In Benton, Michael J.; Shishkin, Mikhail A.; Unwin, David M.; Kurochkin, Evgenii N. The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 390–401. ISBN 0-521-55476-4.