Kocurypelta

Kocurypelta Temporal range: Late Triassic, 221.5–205.6 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauria
Clade:	Pseudosuchia
Order:	†Aetosauria
Family:	†Stagonolepididae
Genus:	†Kocurypelta Czepiński et al., 2021
Species:	†K. silvestris
Binomial name
†Kocurypelta silvestris Czepiński et al., 2021

Kocurypelta is an extinct genus of paratypothoracin aetosaur from the Late Triassic (Norian)-aged Lissauer Breccia of southern Poland. Only the type species is known, which is K. silvestris, described by Czepiński et al. in 2021.^[1]

The holotype (ZPAL V.66/4), which consists of part of the maxilla, and referred material (three dorsal paramedial plates and a ventral plate fragment), was found in a layer of the Lissauer Breccia, of which the location was believed to have been lost after the formation was studied by Friedrich von Huene while describing Velocipes in 1932,^[2] near Kocury, during excavations that began in 2012, that re-discovered and re-explored the formation. The remains were described as the new species Kocurypelta silvestris in 2021.^[1]

According to Czepiński et al. (2021), Kocurypelta is characterized by autapomorphies of the maxilla: an elongated edentulous posterior portion longer than 80% of the posterior maxillary process, a short medial shelf restricted to the posterior portion of the bone, an anteriorly unroofed maxillary accessory cavity, and the lack of a distinct groove for choanal recess on the anteromedial surface of the bone.^[1]

Kocurypelta would have been contemporaneous with the theropod dinosaur Velocipes, an indeterminate species of lungfish (cf. Metaceratodus sp.) and an indeterminate species of stem-turtle from the Proterochersidae family (Proterochersis cf. porebensis).^[1]