Biology:Leidyosuchus

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Short description: Genus of reptiles

Leidyosuchus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous: Campanian, 77.9–72.1 Ma[1]
Leidyosuchus canadensis, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada, Late Cretaceous - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC00090.JPG
Leidyosuchus canadensis skull
Scientific classification e
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Archosauriformes
Order: Crocodilia
Superfamily: Alligatoroidea
Genus: Leidyosuchus
Lambe, 1907
Species
  • L. canadensis Lambe, 1907 (type)

Leidyosuchus (meaning "Leidy's crocodile") 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.[2] 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).[3]

A number of species had been assigned to this genus over the years, including: L. acutidentatus (Sternberg, 1932), from the Paleocene of Saskatchewan; L. formidabilis (Erickson, 1976), from the Paleocene of North Dakota and Wyoming; L. gilmorei (Mook, 1942), from the Campanian of Alberta; L. multidentatus (Mook, 1930); L. riggsi (Schmidt, 1938); L. sternbergii (Gilmore, 1910), from the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and L. wilsoni (Mook, 1959), from the Eocene of Wyoming.[3] However, in 1997 Chris Brochu reevaluated the genus and reassigned most of the species, transferring L. acutidentatus, L. formidabilis, L. sternbergii, and L. wilsoni to the new genus Borealosuchus, and L. multidentatus to the new genus Listrognathosuchus, proposing L. gilmorei as a synonym of L. canadensis, and finding L. riggsi to be too fragmentary to be determinable.[3][4]

Leidyosuchus is one of the basal-most members of the superfamily Alligatoroidea. Leidyosuchus's placement within Alligatoroidea can be shown in the cladogram below, based on a 2018 tip dating study by Lee & Yates that simultaneously used morphological, molecular (DNA sequencing), and stratigraphic (fossil age) data.[5]

Crocodylia
Alligatoroidea

Leidyosuchus

Diplocynodon

Globidonta

Stangerochampsa

Brachychampsa

Navajosuchus

Alligatoridae
Caimaninae

Caiman Caiman crocodilus llanos white background.JPG

Melanosuchus Melanosuchus niger white background.jpg

Paleosuchus Dwarf Caiman white background.jpg

Alligatorinae

Alligator Alligator white background.jpg

extinct basal Crocodilians (including Mekosuchinae)

Longirostres
Crocodyloidea

extinct basal crocodiles

Crocodylidae

Crocodylus Siamese Crocodile white background.jpg

Mecistops Crocodylus cataphractus faux-gavial d'Afrique2 white background.JPG

Osteolaemus Bristol.zoo.westafrican.dwarf.croc.arp. white background.jpg

Gavialoidea

extinct basal Gavialoids

Gavialidae

Gavialis Gavialis gangeticus (Gharial, Gavial) white background.jpg

Tomistoma Tomistoma schlegelii. white background.JPG

References

  1. Rio, Jonathan P.; Mannion, Philip D. (6 September 2021). "Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem". PeerJ 9: e12094. doi:10.7717/peerj.12094. PMID 34567843. 
  2. Lambe, Lawrence M. (1907). "On a new crocodilian genus and species from the Judith River Formation of Alberta". Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. Series 3 1 (4): 219–235. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wu, Xiao-Chun (2005). "Crocodylians". in Currie, Philip J.. Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 277–291. ISBN 0-253-34595-2. https://archive.org/details/dinosaurprovinci0000unse/page/277. 
  4. Brochu, C.A. (1997). "A review of "Leidyosuchus" (Crocodyliformes, Eusuchia) from the Cretaceous through Eocene of North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17 (4): 679–697. doi:10.1080/02724634.1997.10011017. 
  5. Michael S. Y. Lee; Adam M. Yates (27 June 2018). "Tip-dating and homoplasy: reconciling the shallow molecular divergences of modern gharials with their long fossil". Proceedings of the Royal Society B 285 (1881). doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.1071. PMID 30051855. 


Wikidata ☰ Q2366128 entry