biology

Hohlachia

Hohlachia is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hohlachia rather than just read about it. In short: Hohlachia is an extinct genus of early lepidosauromorph (lizard-line reptile) known from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian age) Erfurt Formation of Germany. The genus contains a single species, Hohlachia multidens, known from a partial skull and associated limb bones.

Key takeaways

Hohlachia belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hohlachia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hohlachia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hohlachia is an extinct genus of early lepidosauromorph (lizard-line reptile) known from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian age) Erfurt Formation of Germany. The genus contains a single species, Hohlachia multidens, known from a partial skull and associated limb bones. It is one of many Triassic stem group-lepidosaurs known from the Vellberg region, in addition to Airistagiz and Klainjosaura (named in the same publication as Hohlachia) and the earlier-described Wirtembergia, Fraxinisaura, Vellbergia, and possibly the enigmatic Stauromatodon.

Discovery and naming The Hohlachia fossil material was discovered in the Schumann limestone quarry, representing outcrops of the Erfurt Formation (also called the Lower Keuper) in Vellberg of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The specimen is housed in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Stuttgart, where it is permanently accessioned as specimen SMNS 91270. The specimen consists of a partial skull (right frontal and left maxilla, dentary, and pterygoid), a left humerus, two right humeri, and the proximal part of a right femur. In 2026, Gabriela Sobral and Rainer R. Schoch described Hohlachia multidens as a new genus and species of early lepidosauromorph based on these fossil remains, establishing SMNS 91270 as the holotype specimen. The generic name, Hohlachia, is a medieval variant of a word referencing the House of Hohenlohe, the name of the dynasty eventually expanded to cover what is now the northern Württemberg area, where the fossil was found. The specific name, multidens, combines the Latin words multus, meaning 'more', and dens, meaning 'tooth', in reference to the high maxillary tooth count compared to related taxa from the Vellberg region.

Classification

To test the affinities and relationships of Hohlachia and some other Vellberg reptiles, Sobral and Schoch (2026) incorporated them into an updated version of the phylogenetic matrix of Ford et al. (2021). While the larger-scale relationships and tree topology shifted depending on the setting and methods used in the phylogenetic analyses performed, Hohlachia was consistently recovered as the sister taxon to fellow Vellberg reptile Airistagiz. Together, these two taxa were generally placed at the base of Lepidosauromorpha, the clade containing Lepidosauria—lizards and snakes (Squamata) and the tuatara and its relatives (Rhynchocephalia)—and its extinct, stem-group members. In the authors' better-resolved strict consensus trees, the Early Triassic Paliguana from South Africa was recovered as the basalmost lepidosauromorph, followed by the clade containing Hohlachia and Airistagiz. Their strict consensus tree including Taytalura, a Late Triassic lepidosauromorph from Argentina, recovered the next evolutionary split as the lepidosaur divergence between rhynchocephalians and Pan-Squamata. These results are displayed in the cladogram below, with Vellberg lepidosauromorphs highlighted.

Vellberg lepidosauromorphs

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hohlachia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hohlachia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hohlachia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hohlachia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hohlachia

In research: Hohlachia appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hohlachia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hohlachia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fossil taxa described in 2026, Fossils of Germany, Lepidosauromorpha, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hohlachia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hohlachia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hohlachia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hohlachia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hohlachia in simple terms?

Why does Hohlachia matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hohlachia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hohlachia.