Counillonia
Counillonia is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the area of Luang Prabang in Laos, Southeast Asia that lived at around the time of the Permian-Triassic boundary and possibly dates to the earliest Early Triassic. Its type and only known species is C. superoculis. Counillonia was related to the Triassic dicynodonts such as Lystrosaurus and the Kannemeyeriiformes that survived the Permian mass extinction, but it was more closely related to the Permian genus Dicynodon than to either of these lineages. Counillonia may then possibly represent another line of dicynodonts that survived the Permian mass extinction into the Triassic period, depending on its age. The discovery of Counillonia in Laos and its unexpected evolutionary relationships hint at the less well understood geographies of dicynodont diversity across the Permo-Triassic boundary outside of well explored regions like the Karoo Basin in South Africa. Description Counillonia was a medium-sized dicynodont (skull length of ) currently known only from a single skull that's missing the lower jaws. However, it likely resembled other closely related dicynodonts, particularly Dicynodon itself, and so was probably a squat, sprawling quadruped with a short tail and a large head with nearly toothless jaws and a tortoise-like beak, sporting a