Biology:Dinosuchus

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Short description: Extinct genus of crocodilians

Dinosuchus
Temporal range: Late Miocene-Late Pliocene (Montehermosan-Uquian)
~5.332–2.588 Ma
[1]
Scientific classification edit
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Archosauriformes
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Alligatoridae
Genus: Dinosuchus
Gervais, 1876
Species:
D. terror
Binomial name
Dinosuchus terror
Gervais, 1876

Dinosuchus is a problematic genus of extinct alligatorid crocodilian. It was very large compared to other alligatorids, save for the giant caiman Purussaurus and its closest relatives. The genus was first described in 1876 on the basis of a vertebra from the Brazil ian Amazon, the type species being named D. terror.[2] In 1921, a new species of Dinosuchus, D. neivensis, was named based on a large mandible that was discovered in Colombia.[3] D. neivensis was later found to be synonymous with both Brachygnathosuchus braziliensis and Purussaurus brasiliensis, being reassigned in 1924 to the senior synonym P. brasiliensis.[4] In 1965, D. terror was proposed to be a nomen vanum.[5] In 1936, Robert Broom used the name Dinosuchus for a dinocephalian therapsid from South Africa .[6] Broom's Dinosuchus is now considered a junior synonym of Anteosaurus.[7]

The name Dinosuchus means "terrible crocodile" in Greek. It is not to be confused with Deinosuchus, a large alligatoroid from Late Cretaceous North America.

References

  1. "†Dinosuchus Giebel 1876". Paleobiology Database. Fossilworks. http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=243971. 
  2. Gervais, P. (1876). "Crocodile gigantesque fossile au Brésil". Journal de Zoologie 5: 232–236. 
  3. Mook, C. C. (1921). "Brachygnathosuchus braziliensis, a new fossil crocodilian from Brazil". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 44 (6): 43–49. http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/1725. 
  4. Nopcsa, F. (1924). "Über die Namen einiger brasilianischer fossiler Krokodile". Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 12: 378. 
  5. Langston, W. (1965). "Fossil Crocodilians from Colombia and the Cenozoic history of the Crocodilia in South America". University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 52: 1–157. 
  6. Broom, Robert (1936). "On some new genera and species of Karroo fossil reptiles, with notes on some others.". Annals of the Transvaal Museum 18: 349-386. 
  7. Kammerer, Christian F. (2011). "Systematics of the Anteosauria (Therapsida: Dinocephalia)" (in en). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 9 (2): 261–304. doi:10.1080/14772019.2010.492645. ISSN 1477-2019. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14772019.2010.492645. 

Wikidata ☰ Q5278700 entry