Fossils of Teyumbaita include two nearly complete skulls and a partial skull, all of which were discovered in the lower part of the Caturrita Formation. The fossils were first named as Scaphonyx sulcognathus, a species of Scaphonyx. The genus Scaphonyx is now considered to be a nomen dubium, so S. sulcognathus was reassigned to its own genus by Felipe Chinaglia Montefeltro, Max Cardoso Langer and Cesar Leandro Schultz in 2010. This new genus name, Teyumbaita, was constructed from "lizard (teyú) and parrot (mbaitá)" in the Brazilian aborigine Tupi-Guaraní language, and the combinatio nova is Teyumbaita sulcognathus.[1] Fossil material of a second, yet-unnamed species, is known from the Hoyada del Cerro Las Lajas site of the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina.[2]
Phylogeny
Cladogram based on Montefeltro, Langer and Schultz (2010):[1]