Hoplitosuchus Temporal range: Late Triassic, ~ | |
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Genus: | †Hoplitosuchus von Huene, 1938 |
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†Hoplitosuchus raui von Huene, 1938 | |
Hoplitosuchus is an extinct genus of aetosaur. Fossils have been found from the Santa Maria Formation in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil that date back to the Late Triassic. [1] At first the genus was named Hoplitosaurus, but this name had previously been assigned to a polacanthine ankylosaurian dinosaur in 1902, thirty-six years before it had been referred to the aetosaur. [2] [3] Thus Hoplitosuchus was constructed as a replacement name for Hoplitosaurus. Because the holotype specimen consists of unidentifiable osteoderms and any other material attributed to the genus may actually be considered a composite of rauisuchian and dinosaurian remains, Hoplitosuchus is now considered to be a nomen dubium . [4] The saurischian dinosaur Teyuwasu (now Staurikosaurus ) was named in 1999 on the basis of material originally attributed to Hoplitosuchus. [5]