Palatodonta

Palatodonta is an extinct genus of neodiapsid reptile known from the early Middle Triassic (early Anisian stage) of the Netherlands. It was initially described in 2013 as a basal placodontiform closely related to a group of marine reptiles called placodonts, characterized by their crushing teeth and shell-like body armor. Under this interpretation, Palatodonta is transitional between placodonts and less specialized reptiles. Like placodonts, it has a row of large teeth on its palate, but while these teeth are thick and blunt in placodonts, Palatodonta has palatal teeth that are thin and pointed (like the teeth that line the jaws of most other reptiles). A 2023 study instead classified it as a sauropterygomorph and the sister taxon to Eusaurosphargis. In other words, it is close to, but not within, Sauropterygia (the group containing placodonts and other marine reptiles such as nothosaurs and plesiosaurs).

== Discovery == Palatodonta was first named by James M. Neenan, Nicole Klein and Torsten M. Scheyer in 2013 and the type species is Palatodonta bleekeri. The generic name refers to the row of teeth on the palatine bone of the palate. The specific name honours Remco Bleeker, an amateur paleontologist, who discovered the fossil in the summer of 2010 at the Silbeco quarry near Winterswijk. Palatodonta is known from the holotype TW480000470, a well-preserved skull of a juvenile individual.