Allognathosuchus

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Allognathosuchus
Temporal range: Eocene,
56–47.8  Ma [1]
Allognathosuchus gracilis.jpg
Life restoration of Allognathosuchus gracilis
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Archosauriformes
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Alligatoridae
Subfamily: Alligatorinae
Genus: Allognathosuchus
Mook, 1921
Species
  • A. polyodon(Cope, 1872 [originally Crocodylus polyodon]) (type)
  • ?A. gracilisRauhe and Rossmann, 1995
  • A. heterodon(Cope, 1872 [originally Alligator heterodon])
  • ?A. wartheniCase, 1925
  • ?A. woutersiBuffetaut, 1985

Allognathosuchus (meaning "other jaw crocodile") is an extinct genus of alligatorine crocodylian with a complicated taxonomic history. It was named in 1921. [2]

Contents

Description

Allognathosuchus was a medium-sized predator up to 1.5 m in length. [3] This alligatorine is known for its stout jaws and bulbous teeth, found near the rear of the tooth row in upper and lower jaws. These adaptations have historically been interpreted as having been for crushing mollusks. Isolated bulbous teeth are often assigned to this genus, although such teeth are known from other crocodyliform lineages.

Taxonomy

The type species, A. polyodon, is from the Eocene-age Bridger Formation of Wyoming; it is based on fossils that are difficult to distinguish from other Paleogene alligatorids. A. heterodon is from the Eocene-age Wasatch Formation of Wyoming, A. wartheni is from the Eocene-age Wildwood Formation (also known as the "Wildwood alligatorid" and possibly two species), and A. woutersi, which may belong to Diplocynodon , instead, is from the Early Eocene of Belgium. A. polyodon, A. heterodon, and A. wartheni span the Clarkforkian, Wasatchian, and Bridgerian North American Land Mammal Ages. [4]

Several other genera and species were previously assigned to Allognathosuchus, giving it a potential Upper Cretaceous-Oligocene stratigraphic range, and a geographic range covering North America, Europe, and Africa. Christopher Brochu reviewed the genus in 2004, and in light of the fragmentary remains of several of the species involved, recommended conservative use of the genus. He excluded Albertochampsa langstoni , Arambourgia gaudryi , and Wannaganosuchus brachymanus from Allognathosuchus, and resurrected Hassiacosuchus and Navajosuchus from synonymy with Allognathosuchus after finding them not to group with A. polyodon to the exclusion of other alligatorines. [4]

Recent studies have consistently resolved Allognathosuchus polyodon and Allognathosuchus wartheni as members of Alligatorinae, although their relative placement is disputed, as shown by the cladograms below. [5] [6] [7]

Cladogram from 2018 Bona et al. study: [5]

Alligatorinae

Ceratosuchus burdoshi

Allognathosuchus polyodon

Allognathosuchus wartheni

Navajosuchus mooki

Arambourgia gaudryi

Procaimanoidea kayi

Procaimanoidea utahensis

Wannaganosuchus brachymanus

Alligator prenasalis

Alligator mcgrewi

Alligator olseni

Alligator sinensis Chinese alligator

Culebrasuchus mesoamericanus

Alligator mississippiensis American alligator

Alligator mefferdi

Alligator thomsoni

Cladogram from 2019 Massonne et al. study: [6]

Alligatorinae

Alligator prenasalis

Alligator mcgrewi

Alligator olseni

Alligator sinensis Chinese alligator

Alligator thomsoni

Alligator mefferdi

Alligator mississippiensis American alligator

Procaimanoidea utahensis

Procaimanoidea kayi

Arambourgia gaudryi

Hassiacosuchus haupti

Wannaganosuchus brachymanus

Allognathosuchus wartheni

Allognathosuchus polyodon

Cladogram from 2020 Cossette & Brochu study: [7]

Alligatorinae

Ceratosuchus burdoshi

Hassiacosuchus haupti

Navajosuchus mooki

Allognathosuchus polyodon

Alligator mcgrewi

Alligator prenasalis

Wannaganosuchus brachymanus

Arambourgia gaudryi

Procaimanoidea kayi

Procaimanoidea utahensis

Alligator olseni

Alligator sinensis Chinese alligator

Alligator mississippiensis American alligator

Alligator mefferdi

Alligator thomsoni

Related Research Articles

<i>Ceratosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Ceratosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatorine crocodylian from latest Paleocene rocks of Colorado's Piceance Basin and earliest Eocene rocks of Wyoming's Bighorn Basin in North America, a slice of time known as the Clarkforkian North American Land Mammal Age. Like its modern relatives, Ceratosuchus was a swamp-dwelling predator. It is named for the pair of flattened, triangular bony plates that extend from the back of its head.

<i>Diplocynodon</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Diplocynodon is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian that lived during the Paleocene to Middle Miocene in Europe. Some species may have reached lengths of 3 metres (9.8 ft), while others probably did not exceed 1 metre (3.3 ft). They are almost exclusively found in freshwater environments. The various species are thought to have been opportunistic aquatic predators.

Wannaganosuchus is an extinct genus of small alligatorid crocodilian. It was found in Late Paleocene-age rocks of Billings County, North Dakota, United States.

<i>Procaimanoidea</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Procaimanoidea is an extinct genus of alligatorid from the Eocene of North America. It was named posthumously in 1946 by Charles W. Gilmore; the type species is P. utahensis, from the Uintan of Utah. It is based on USNM 15996, a nearly complete skull and partial left hind leg. A second species, P. kayi, was named in 1941 by C.C. Mook as a species of Hassiacosuchus, for remains from the Bridgerian of Wyoming. It was reassigned to Procaimanoidea in 1967 by Wassersug and Hecht.

<i>Leidyosuchus</i> Genus of reptiles

Leidyosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. It was named in 1907 by Lawrence Lambe, and the type species is L. canadensis. It is known from a number of specimens from the middle Campanian age Dinosaur Park Formation. It was a medium-sized alligatorid, with a maximum skull length greater than 40 centimeters (16 in).

<i>Hassiacosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Hassiacosuchus is an extinct genus of small alligatorid from the early Eocene of Germany, found at the Messel pit. It was named in 1935 by K. Weitzel, and the type species is H. haupti. A second species, H. kayi, was named in 1941 by C.C. Mook for material from the Bridgerian of Wyoming, but was reassigned to Procaimanoidea in 1967 by Wassersug and Hecht. Hassiacosuchus may be the same as Allognathosuchus; Christopher Brochu has recommended continuing to use Hassiacosuchus.

<i>Navajosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Navajosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatorine crocodylian. Its fossils have been found in the Paleocene-age Nacimiento Formation of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. It was named in 1942 by Charles C. Mook, and the original type species was N. novomexicanus. N. novomexicanus was based on AMNH 5186, a partial skull collected in 1913. Later research showed that Navajosuchus novomexicanus was the same as the earlier-named Allognathosuchus mooki. However, A. mooki does not belong to the genus Allognathosuchus, and so the name of the crocodilian becomes Navajosuchus mooki. Under whichever name is used, this animal would have been a generalized predator of the Nacimiento floodplains. It was the most common Nacimiento Formation crocodilian, found in both the Puercan and Torrejonian faunal assemblages.

<i>Acynodon</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Acynodon is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph from the Late Cretaceous, with fossils found throughout Southern Europe.

Arambourgia is an extinct monotypic genus of alligatorine crocodylian from Europe. It was named in 1905 as Allognathosuchus gaudryi. It was made a separate genus Arambourgia in 1940. This was synonymized with Allognathosuchus haupti in 1990, but later reassigned as its own genus once again in 2004. Arambourgia was likely to have been part of an early dispersal event of alligatorines from North America to Europe during the Eocene epoch. Arambourgia had non-serrated teeth and a deep orienirostral snout, unlike the flatter snouts of most other alligatorids.

Bottosaurus is an extinct genus of alligatorid from the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleocene of New Jersey, Texas, and possibly North Carolina and South Carolina. Two species are currently accepted, with a third requiring re-evaluation.

<i>Brachychampsa</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Brachychampsa is an extinct genus of alligatoroid, possibly a basal caiman. Specimens have been reported from New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, New Jersey, and Saskatchewan, though only those from Montana, Utah, and New Mexico are based on material sufficient to justify the referral. One specimen has been reported from the Darbasa Formation of Kazakhstan, although the species status is indeterminate for the fossil. The genus first appeared during the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous and became extinct during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous. Brachychampsa is distinguished by an enlarged fifth maxillary tooth in the upper jaw.

<i>Planocrania</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Planocrania is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodyliforms from what is now China. Two species are currently known to belong to the genus.

Prodiplocynodon is an extinct genus of basal crocodyloid crocodylian. It is one of the only crocodyloids known from the Cretaceous and existed during the Maastrichtian stage. The only species of Prodiplocynodon is the type species P. langi from the Lance Formation of Wyoming, known only from a single holotype skull lacking the lower jaw.

<i>Stangerochampsa</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Stangerochampsa is an extinct genus of globidontan alligatoroid, possibly an alligatorine or a stem-caiman, from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. It is based on RTMP.86.61.1, a skull, partial lower jaws, and partial postcranial skeleton discovered in the late Campanian–early Maastrichtian-age Horseshoe Canyon Formation. Stangerochampsa was described in 1996 by Wu and colleagues. The type species is S. mccabei. The generic name honors the Stanger family, the owners of the ranch where the specimen was found, and the species name honors James Ross McCabe, who discovered, collected, and prepared it. Stangerochampsa is described as "small to medium–sized"; the type skull is 20.0 centimetres (7.9 in) long from the tip of the snout to the occipital condyle, and is 13.0 centimetres (5.1 in) wide at its greatest, while the thigh bone is 14.2 centimetres (5.6 in) long. It had heterodont dentition, with large crushing teeth at the rear of the jaws.

Krabisuchus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodylian that existed in what is now Thailand during the Eocene. It was first named by paleontologists Jeremy A. Martin and Komsorn Lauprasert in 2010, and the type species is K. siamogallicus. Fossils have been found from the Krabi Basin of southern Thailand and include mostly cranial and mandibular elements as well as some postcranial remains. Krabisuchus is currently the most well known primitive alligatoroid from Asia; previously, these animals were only represented in Asia by a few fragmentary remains from China. The fossil record of alligatoroids is much more extensive in Europe and North America, where most taxa have been described.

<i>Alligator prenasalis</i> Extinct species of reptile

Alligator prenasalis is an extinct species of alligator from the Late Eocene period. It is well known, with many fossils having been collected from the Chadron and Brule Formations in South Dakota. The species was first named in 1904, but was originally classified as a crocodile in the genus Crocodilus. It was reassigned to the genus Alligator in 1918 on the basis of more complete material. It is the earliest known member of the genus Alligator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Globidonta</span> Clade of reptiles

Globidonta is a clade of alligatoroids that includes alligators, caimans, and closely related extinct forms. It is defined as a stem-based clade including Alligator mississippiensis and all forms more closely related to it than to Diplocynodon. The group's fossil range extends back into the Late Cretaceous with early alligatoroids such as Albertochampsa and Brachychampsa. Extinct globidontans were particularly common in North America and Eurasia, and their modern range also includes South America.

Culebrasuchus is an extinct, monotypic genus of caiman alligatorid known from the Early to Middle Miocene (Hemingfordian) of the Panama Canal Zone of Panama. It contains a single species, Culebrasuchus mesoamericanus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orientalosuchina</span> Extinct clade of crocodilians

Orientalosuchina is an extinct clade of alligatoroid crocodylians from South and East Asia that lived during the Paleocene and Eocene.

Jiangxisuchus is an extinct genus of crocodylian that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now China. It was described in 2019, and was proposed to be a basal member of Crocodyloidea. However, another concurrent 2019 study recovered Jiangxisuchus instead as a basal member of Alligatoroidea, within the newly named clade Orientalosuchina.

References

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  2. C. C. Mook. 1921. Allognathosuchus, a new genus of Eocene crocodilians. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 44:105-110
  3. "Allognathosuchus : Eocene Mammals". Archived from the original on 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2012-05-23.
  4. 1 2 Brochu, Christopher A. (2004). "Alligatorine phylogeny and the status of Allognathosuchus Mook, 1921". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 24 (4): 857–873. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2004)024[0857:APATSO]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR   4524781. S2CID   85050852.
  5. 1 2 Paula Bona; Martín D. Ezcurra; Francisco Barrios; María V. Fernandez Blanco (2018). "A new Palaeocene crocodylian from southern Argentina sheds light on the early history of caimanines". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 285 (1885): 20180843. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.0843. PMC   6125902 . PMID   30135152.
  6. 1 2 Tobias Massonne; Davit Vasilyan; Márton Rabi; Madelaine Böhme (2019). "A new alligatoroid from the Eocene of Vietnam highlights an extinct Asian clade independent from extant Alligator sinensis". PeerJ. 7: e7562. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7562 . PMC   6839522 . PMID   31720094.
  7. 1 2 Adam P. Cossette; Christopher A. Brochu (2020). "A systematic review of the giant alligatoroid Deinosuchus from the Campanian of North America and its implications for the relationships at the root of Crocodylia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (1): e1767638. Bibcode:2020JVPal..40E7638C. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2020.1767638 .