A rich cynodont fauna of Santa Cruz do Sul, Santa Maria Formation (Middle-Late Triassic), southern Brazil

A new Triassic vertebrate fauna, known from over 100 specimens, is dominated by non-mammalian cynodonts.Three specimens represent sectorial- toothed chiniquodontids, while thirty-nine are traversodontids, of at least, four different types that are distinguished principally by poslcanine morphology. The Santa Cruz do Sul is the only locality within the Santa Maria Formation charac­ terized by the prevalence of cynodonts, and importantly documents a high traverso- dontid diversity for the South American Triassic.