Skull

Most archosauromorphs more "advanced" than Protorosaurus possessed an adaptation

of the premaxilla (tooth-bearing bone at the tip of the snout) known as a posterodorsal
or postnarial process. This was a rear-facing branch of bone that stretched up below and
behind the external nares (nostril holes) to contact the nasal bones on the upper edge of
the snout. A few advanced archosauriforms reacquired the plesiomorphic ("primitive")
state present in other reptiles, that being a short or absent posterodorsal process of the
premaxilla, with the rear edge of the nares formed primarily by the maxilla bones
instead. As for the nares themselves, they were generally large and oval-shaped,
positioned high and close to the midline of the skull.[4]
Many early archosauromorphs, including Protorosaurus, tanystropheids, Trilophosaurus,
and derived rhynchosaurs, have a blade-like sagittal crest on the parietal bones at the
rear part of the skull roof, between a pair of holes known as the supratemporal (or upper
temporal) fenestrae. However, in other allokotosaurs, the basal rhynchosaur Mesosuchus
, and more crownward archosauromorphs, the sagittal crest is weakly differentiated,
although the inner edge of each supratemporal fenestra still possessed a depressed basin
of bone known as a supratemporal fossa. Ezcurra (2016) argued that presence of
supratemporal fossae and an absence or poor development of the sagittal crest could be
used to characterize Crocopoda. He also noted that in almost all early archosauromorphs
(and some choristoderes), the parietal bones have an additional lowered area which
extends transversely (from left to right) behind the supratemporal fenestrae and sagittal
crest (when applicable).[2]