| Microchampsa Temporal range: Early Jurassic | |
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| Genus: | Microchampsa Young, 1951 |
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Microchampsa is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodyliform that existed during the Early Jurassic. Fossils have been found from stratum 6 of the Dahuangtian locality, an outcrop of the Lower Red Beds of the Lufeng Formation in Yunnan, China. [1]
Parts of the postcranial skeleton, such as the dorsal osteoderms, vertebrae, ribs, and bones of the manus, are known. [2] The dorsal osteoderms of the lumbar region are fused to double headed ribs. All osteoderms are rectangular and overlap each other. [1]
Microchampsa was named in 1951 on the basis of an incomplete skeleton consisting of cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae as well as ribs and three rows of dorsal osteoderms. [2] Three other specimens of crocodylomorphs described in 1965 also seemed to display three rows of osteoderms, and as a result were assigned to the genus Microchampsa. [3] However, later studies revealed that the specimens had only two rows of osteoderms that more closely resembled those of the genus Platyognathus , and that the presence of three rows of osteoderms in the holotype of Microchampsa may have been an artifact of preservation. [4] However, this hypothesis is speculative as the holotype of Microchampsa had since been lost by the time of the studies. [5]
It was assigned to the suborder Protosuchia in 1965 and the family Notochampsidae in 1992. [3] However, later studies argued that it is a nomen dubium due to the lack of diagnostic material in the incompletely known remains. [6] Thus it can only be regarded as a poorly known protosuchian.
