Friedrich von Huene adopted it as a superorder of his subclass "Eutetrapoda" (the lower tetrapods exclusive of the urodeles) and included the orders Stegocephalia (here including a number of labyrinthodonts) and anurans).
It is known from a nearly complete fossil skull that was first described by paleontologists Friedrich von Huene and M. R. Sahni in 1958 from the Panchet Formation in Raniganj Coalfield.
Friedrich von Huene (1940) identified the basicranium as belonging to Paradapedon huxleyi (now known as Hyperodapedon huxleyi), thus he assigned the phytosaurian material to a newly named species "aff." Brachysuchus maleriensis.
He abandoned his planned second volume which would have brought the history up to about 1960, and instead published his translation of Friedrich von Huene's paleontological work about Santa Maria, as well as a biography of Colonel João Niederauer Sobrinho (1827–1868) a hero of the Paraguayan War.
Friedrich von Huene named the carnivorous Triassic reptile Prestosuchus chiniquensis in Prestes's honor (from Prestes and Chiniquá, his birthplace).
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