Howesia browni

Howesia browni is an early rhynchosaur from South Africa's Karoo Basin. Two newly described skulls, one nearly complete and studied with micro-CT, clarified its beak and tooth-bearing surfaces and led researchers to treat Eohyosaurus wolvaardti as the same species. The new anatomy places Howesia between the less specialised Mesosuchus and later rhynchosaurids in several skull features. It is included in the other fossil reptile catalogue as a small but important early archosauromorph.

Quick facts

A revised view from new skulls

Robert Broom named Howesia browni in 1905 from South African material. Older descriptions established it as an early rhynchosaur but left important parts of its skull uncertain. In 2026, a study described two additional specimens from the Trirachodon–Kannemeyeria Subzone of the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone. One skull, SAM-PK-K10180, is virtually complete and was reconstructed using high-resolution micro-computed tomography; SAM-PK-K11831 adds another set of cranial observations.

The new specimens do not erase the older collection. Instead, they allow researchers to compare previously unknown areas and reassess the characters that distinguished named taxa. This is why a recent reconstruction can differ from an older one without the earlier fossils having changed: the anatomical sample has grown and become easier to study.

Why Eohyosaurus is no longer separate

Eohyosaurus wolvaardti had been named from a partial skull lacking the snout and much of the external cranial surface. The new Howesia material preserves those regions and permits direct comparison of overlapping features. The 2026 study concluded that the differences did not justify keeping the two as separate species and treated Eohyosaurus wolvaardti as a junior synonym of Howesia browni.

That synonymy changes the accepted taxonomic picture, not the identity of the physical fossils. Older specimens keep their catalogue numbers and collection histories. Their names are interpreted in light of the expanded comparison. Future discoveries could refine the decision, as taxonomic hypotheses remain open to new evidence.

A beak before the familiar rhynchosaur skull

The new skulls show an edentulous, downward-curving premaxilla that formed a beak-like front. The maxilla carries tooth-bearing surfaces, including marginal tooth plates. This combination places Howesia between Mesosuchus browni, whose premaxilla bears teeth, and the more derived rhynchosaurids. Several features associated with later rhynchosaurs had already appeared in this early form.

The tooth plates and beak are direct anatomical observations. Their use in cropping and processing plants is an ecological inference, not a preserved meal. Researchers can compare the surfaces and arrangement with later rhynchosaurs, but exact diet, bite force and feeding movements are not fossilised. The skull supports a specialised jaw system without providing a complete record of what the animal ate.

Age, size and what remains uncertain

The specimens come from the Burgersdorp Formation in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Their stratigraphic position is assigned to the Trirachodon–Kannemeyeria Subzone and is dated from the early Olenekian to early Anisian, spanning the Early to earliest Middle Triassic. A formation-level age describes a geological interval, not one exact year for every fossil.

Howesia was a small rhynchosaur, but estimates based on incomplete skeletons vary. The skull does not determine a precise adult length or mass. Bones preserve the shape of the jaws and parts of the skeleton; colour, skin texture, social behaviour and reproduction remain unknown. Its significance lies in the documented sequence of skull features, not in a fully known life history.