Musturzabalsuchus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, ? | |
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Holotype jaw of M. buffetauti | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauria |
Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
Clade: | † Allodaposuchidae |
Genus: | † Musturzabalsuchus Buscalioni et al., 1997 |
Species: | †M. buffetauti |
Binomial name | |
†Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti Buscalioni et al., 1997 | |
Musturzabalsuchus is an extinct monospecific genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodyliform. The type and only species is Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti.
The generic name means "broadened rostrum crocodile", with "Musturzabal" meaning "broadened rostrum" in Basque and "suchus" meaning "crocodile" in Greek. The type and only species is M. buffetauti, named after the French paleoherpetologist Eric Buffetaut.
The material first assigned to Musturzabalsuchus in 1997 has been found from the locality of Laño in Condado de Treviño, northern Spain. [1] Although dating back to the Late Cretaceous, the exact age of the strata in which material of Musturzabalsuchus occurs in the locality is not known: it is either Late Campanian or very Early Maastrichtian. [2] Despite the unusually high quantity of remains belonging to the genus, the only skeletal elements known from Musturzabalsuchus are the maxilla and mandible. Some fragments of these bones have been found from the locality of Armuña in the province of Segovia that were previously referred to an unnamed trematochampsid. [3] Like the holotype and paratype material found from Laño, these fossils, known collectively as UPUAM-502, are Campano-Maastrichtian in age. [1]
Another specimen (MHNM 10834.0) from the Fuvelian Lignites of France has been referred to Musturzabalsuchus in 1999. [4] However, the characteristics used to assign the material to better-known specimens of Musturzabalsuchus from Spain were questioned in a later 2008 study. [5]
Material from Musturzabalsuchus has been found more recently from Valencia, Spain, being slightly older in age than specimens from other localities, dating back to the Early or Middle Campanian. [6]
Musturzabalsuchus was initially assigned to Alligatoroidea on the basis of several characters, including a lateral displacement of the foramen aereum of the articular. Additionally, the enlarged fourth mandibular tooth occludes into a pit in the rostrum. [7] Only the latter feature is present in the more derived alligatorids, and thus it is excluded from the family. [7] The pit that the fourth mandibular occludes into is placed posterior to the last premaxillary tooth, similar to what is seen in "Diplocynodon" hantoniensis, another early alligatoroid. A figure used in an 1869 study by P. Matheron of crocodylian remains from the Fuveau Lignites (illustration) pictured a mandible similar in profile to that of Musturzabalsuchus, but was labeled as belonging to the crocodylian Crocodilus affuvelensis. [8] In 1997 it was suggested that due to this apparent similarity, along with the vagueness of descriptions in the 1869 paper and the loss of the syntype, that C. affuvelensis could be reassigned to Musturzabalsuchus, although it was also acknowledged that the lack of posterior cranial material in the genus made detailed comparisons difficult. [1] A recent 2008 study on Matheron's specimens concluded that they belonged to a new genus distinct from Crocodylus and different from Musturzabalsuchus, named Massaliasuchus . [5]
Recent phylogenetic studies now recover Musturzabalsuchus as a member of Allodaposuchidae, outside Alligatoroidea. [9] [10] However, Musturzabalsuchus is usually omitted from phylogenetic analyses due to the lack of sufficient anatomical information. [10]
Musturzabalsuchus and Acynodon , a contemporary crocodilian also common from Laño, are thought to have been closely related to Paleolaurasian alligatoroids. The latter genus is the only taxon not known from North America to be related to the more derived Late Cretaceous tribodont alligatorids. It is clear that Musturzabalsuchus was endemic to Europe, and was most likely restricted to Ibero-Armorica Island, [11] [12] as the genus is absent from Northern and Eastern European localities from which other alligatoroid fossils have been found. [1]
Deinosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian, related to modern alligators and caimans, that lived 82 to 73 million years ago (Ma), during the late Cretaceous period. The name translates as "terrible crocodile" and is derived from the Greek deinos (δεινός), "terrible", and soukhos (σοῦχος), "crocodile". The first remains were discovered in North Carolina in the 1850s; the genus was named and described in 1909. Additional fragments were discovered in the 1940s and were later incorporated into an influential, though inaccurate, skull reconstruction at the American Museum of Natural History. Knowledge of Deinosuchus remains incomplete, but better cranial material found in recent years has expanded scientific understanding of this massive predator.
Pyroraptor is an extinct genus of paravian dinosaur, probably a dromaeosaurid or unenlagiid, from the Late Cretaceous Ibero-Armorican island, of what is now southern France. It lived during the late Campanian and early Maastrichtian stages, approximately 72 million years ago. It is known from a single partial specimen that was found in Provence in 1992, after a forest fire. The animal was named Pyroraptor olympius by Allain and Taquet in 2000.
Hypselosaurus is a dubious genus of titanosaurian sauropod that lived in southern France during the Late Cretaceous, approximately 70 million years ago in the early Maastrichtian. Hypselosaurus was first described in 1846, but was not formally named until 1869, when Phillip Matheron named it under the binomial Hypselosaurus priscus. The holotype specimen includes a partial hindlimb and a pair of caudal vertebrae, and two eggshell fragments were found alongside these bones. Because of the proximity of these eggshells to the fossil remains, many later authors, including Matheron and Paul Gervais, have assigned several eggs from the same region of France all to Hypselosaurus, although the variation and differences between these eggs suggest that they do not all belong to the same taxon. Hypselosaurus has been found in the same formation as the dromaeosaurids Variraptor and Pyroraptor, the ornithopod Rhabdodon, and the ankylosaurian Rhodanosaurus, as well as indeterminate bones from other groups.
Allodaposuchus is an extinct genus of crocodyliforms that lived in what is now southern Europe during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages, and possibly the Santonian stage, of the Late Cretaceous. Although generally classified as a non-crocodylian eusuchian crocodylomorph, it is sometimes placed as one of the earliest true crocodylians. Allodaposuchus is one of the most common Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs from Europe, with fossils known from Romania, Spain, and France.
Gargantuavis is an extinct genus of large, primitive bird containing the single species Gargantuavis philoinos. It is the only member of the monotypic family Gargantuaviidae. Its fossils were discovered in several formations dating to 73.5 and 71.5 million years ago in what is now northern Spain, Southern France, and Romania. Gargantuavis is the largest known bird of the Mesozoic, a size ranging between the cassowary and the ostrich, and a mass of 141 kg (311 lb) like modern ostriches, exemplifying the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs wasn't a necessary condition for the emergence of giant terrestrial birds. It was once thought to be closely related to modern birds, but the 2019 discovery of a pelvis identified as cf. Elopteryx nopcsai from what was Hateg Island shows several primitive features.
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 alligatoroid, with a maximum skull length greater than 40 centimeters (16 in).
Acynodon is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph from the Late Cretaceous, with fossils found throughout Southern Europe.
Massaliasuchus is an extinct monospecific genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous (Santonian–Campanian) Fuvelian Lignites of southeastern France. The type species is M. affuvelensis.
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.
Brachychampsa is an extinct genus of alligatorid, 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. Some specimens have been reported from the Campanian-aged deposits of Central Asia, although the species status is indeterminate for these fossils. 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.
Dolichochampsa is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph. It is the type genus and only member of the family Dolichochampsidae. Fossils have been found in the Yacoraite Formation of Argentina and the El Molino Formation of Bolivia of Maastrichtian age. It had a distinctive slender snout. Because the material associated with the specimens is so fragmentary, its relationships with other eusuchians remain unknown. Jouve et al. (2020) assigned Dolichochampsa to Gavialoidea, making it the oldest known South American member of this clade.
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.
Stangerochampsa is an extinct genus of alligatorid, 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.
Ischyrochampsa is an extinct monospecific genus of Late Cretaceous crocodyliform belonging to the eusuchian clade Allodaposuchidae. Fossils of the type species I. meridionalis are late Campanian in age and were found in the commune of Saint-Estève-Janson in Bouches-du-Rhône, France. Material is also known from Spain. It was named and described in 1995, and it had an estimated length of over 4 metres (13 ft).
Arenysuchus is an extinct monospecific genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodylomorph from Late Cretaceous deposits of north Spain. It is known from the holotype MPZ ELI-1, a partial skull from Elías site, and from the referred material MPZ2010/948, MPZ2010/949, MPZ2010/950 and MPZ2010/951, four teeth from Blasi 2 site. It was found by the researchers José Manuel Gasca and Ainara Badiola from the Tremp Formation, in Arén of Huesca, Spain. It was first named by Eduardo Puértolas, José I. Canudo and Penélope Cruzado-Caballero in 2011 and the type species is Arenysuchus gascabadiolorum.
Allodaposuchidae is an extinct clade of eusuchians that lived in Europe during the Late Cretaceous (Santonian-Maastrichtian).
Laño is a hamlet and concejo in Condado de Treviño within the Treviño enclave; which is administratively part of the Spanish province of Burgos, but which is completely surrounded by the territory of the Basque country province of Álava. It is best known for the fossils of extinct vertebrates dating from around 70 million years before present which have been found there.
Lohuecosuchus is an extinct genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodylomorph that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Spain and southern France.
Solemys is an extinct genus of stem turtle known from the Late Cretaceous of southern France and eastern Spain.
Agaresuchus is an extinct genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodylomorph from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of Spain. It includes two species, the type species A. fontisensis, and A. subjuniperus, which was originally named as a species of the related genus Allodaposuchus. However, it has been proposed that both species may instead belong to the genus Allodaposuchus.