Friday, August 19, 2016

[Paleontology • 2015] Lohuecosuchus megadontos • New Crocodyliforms from Southwestern Europe and Definition of a Diverse Clade of European Late Cretaceous Basal Eusuchians


 Lohuecosuchus megadontos
 Narváez, Brochu, Escaso, Pérez-García and Ortega, 2015



Abstract

The late Campanian-early Maastrichtian site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain) has provided a set of well-preserved crocodyliform skull and lower jaw remains, which are described here and assigned to a new basal eusuchian taxon, Lohuecosuchus megadontos gen. et sp. nov. The reevaluation of a complete skull from the synchronous site of Fox-Amphoux (Department of Var, France) allows us to define a second species of this new genus. Phylogenetic analysis places Lohuecosuchus in a clade exclusively composed by European Late Cretaceous taxa. This new clade, defined here as Allodaposuchidae, is recognized as the sister group of Hylaeochampsidae, also comprised of European Cretaceous forms. Allodaposuchidae and Hylaeochampsidae are grouped in a clade identified as the sister group of Crocodylia, the only crocodyliform lineage that reaches our days. Allodaposuchidae shows a vicariant distribution pattern in the European Late Cretaceous archipelago, with several Ibero-Armorican forms more closely related to each other than with to Romanian Allodaposuchus precedens.

Systematic Paleontology

Crocodylomorpha
Crocodyliformes

Eusuchia

Allodaposuchidae clade nov.
Type species: Allodaposuchus precedens 

Definition: Allodaposuchus precedens and all crocodyliforms more closely related to it than to Hylaeochampsa vectiana, Shamosuchus djadochtaensis, Borealosuchus sternbergii, Planocrania datangensis, Alligator mississippiensis, Crocodylus niloticus, or Gavialis gangeticus.

Included species: Allodaposuchus precedens; Massaliasuchus affuvelensis; Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti; Arenysuchus gascabadiolorum; Allodaposuchus subjuniperus; Allodaposuchus palustris; Allodaposuchus hulki, Lohuecosuchus megadontos sp. nov.; Lohuecosuchus mechinorum sp. nov.

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Iván Narváez, Christopher A. Brochu, Fernando Escaso, Adán Pérez-García and Francisco Ortega. 2015. New Crocodyliforms from Southwestern Europe and Definition of a Diverse Clade of European Late Cretaceous Basal Eusuchians. PLoS ONE. 10(11): e0140679. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140679

 Lohuecosuchus megadontos 
Narváez, Brochu, Escaso, Pérez-García and Ortega, 2015
   DOI: 
10.1371/journal.pone.0140679