Ruhuhuaria

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Ruhuhuaria is an extinct reptile from the Middle Triassic of southwestern Tanzania. It belongs to the owenettid group, a type of early parareptile closely related to procolophonids. The knowledge about Ruhuhuaria comes from a single fossil skull and jaw, the holotype CAMZM T997, which was found in the Lifua Member of the Manda Beds in the Ruhuhu Basin and collected in the 1930s by Francis Rex Parrington. The skull was recently rediscovered in the Cambridge Museum of Zoology. Ruhuhuaria reiszi is the type species, named in 2013 by Tsuji, Sobral, and Müller. The name Ruhuhuaria comes from the Ruhuhu Basin, and reiszi honors Canadian paleontologist Robert R. Reisz. Because the skull is poorly preserved, scientists are not sure exactly where Ruhuhuaria fits within Owenettidae. It is one of the youngest owenettids known, showing that this group persisted into the Middle Triassic and lived at the same time as procolophonids. In the 2013 study, Ruhuhuaria was placed in a cladogram near Procolophonidae, though its exact position remains uncertain.