Coeruleodraco

Coeruleodraco is an extinct genus of choristoderan known from the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) Tiaojishan Formation in China.

[1] The skull had a short, pointed snout with about 38 teeth on each side (a low number by choristodere standards).

While paired nares are standard in most reptile groups, almost all other choristoderes (except Lazarussuchus) typically have one single hole in the skull for the nostrils, making Coeruleodraco's retention of paired nares a plesiomorphic ("primitive") feature relative to most other choristoderes.

The rear edge of each upper temporal fenestra was formed by the squamosal bone, which was ornamented with small spines.

Vertebrae were longer than high, and the neural arches were completely fused to the centra (lower, spool-shaped portions), in contrast to the condition in neochoristoderes.

(specimen IVPP 14560) Hyphalosaurus lingyuanensis (specimen IVPP 11075) Shokawa ikoi In the analyses of Dong and colleagues (2020) it was recovered in a more basal position, outside the clade containing Neochoristodera + the newly named "Allochoristoderes", and in a polytomy with the newly named Heishanosaurus:[2]

Heishanosaurus pygmaeus Coeruleodraco jurassicus Ikechosaurus pijiagouensis Ikechosaurus sunailinae Tchoiria namsari Tchoiria klauseni C. gigas C. albertensis S. lemoinei S. dakotensis Monjurosuchus splendens P. proseilus P. proseilus L. inexpectatus Lazarussuchus sp.

CT scan of the skull of the holotype
Life reconstruction of C. jurassicus compared to a human hand