Back when it was formed, the Reinaut Formation was likely a subtropical or temperate open woodland subject to seasonal rains. The fossils discovered in the Reinaut Formation so far, have mostly been megafaunal animals which tended to fossilise better than smaller animals in the conditions that were present in Reinaut 122 million years ago.
A very common creature discovered in Reinaut is Saurochenia major. With its long legs, strong tail, elongated snout and huge dewclaws on its hind feet, it was a standard representative of the family named after it; Saurocheniidae. Saurocheniids appear somewhat out of the blue in the late Bobossic with no clear origin having been determined for them, but they have many anatomical traits that suggest they were quite closely related to the handful of modern Brachiostomatan Anisospondyls. One such trait is the specialised protrusions on the vertebrae right behind the head that, in modern species, support a fleshy cartilaginous ear pinna. While no evidence of such an ear has been found in Saurochenia itself, a fossil preserving skin impressions of a Saurocheniid discovered elsewhere does show such a structure being present, so it’s likely that S. Major also had it. This ear may have been used for display as it is in many modern Brachiostomes and could have been brightly colored.
Saurochenia had huge clipper shaped claws on its caecal front limbs that were likely used to shear leaves from their stems or to pluck small plants from the ground. The enormous dewclaws on the hind feet were likely used for both intraspecific combat and for defense against predators.
Curiously, Saurochenia fossils are often found in association with isolated teeth belonging to Kampourischium, a carnivore that like S. Major has also been discovered in the Noileyn Beds in Hatèmica, suggesting a well established predator-prey relationship between Saurocheniids and Kampourischiids.
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