Iberosuchus

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Iberosuchus
Fossil range: Eocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Subclass: Diapsida
Infraclass: Archosauromorpha
(unranked) Crurotarsi
Superorder: Crocodylomorpha
(unranked) Mesoeucrocodylia
Family: Sebecosuchidae
Genus: Iberosuchus
Antunes, 1975
Species
  • I. macrodon Antunes, 1975 (type)

Iberosuchus (meaning "Iberian crocodile") is an extinct genus of sebecosuchid mesoeucrocodylian from the Eocene of western Europe. It was described in 1975 by Antunes from remains from Portugal as a sebecosuchian crocodilian. The type species is I. macrodon.[1] It was reclassified as a baurusuchid by Robert Carroll in 1988,[2] and its range was extended to France in 1996 by Ortega and colleagues, who reassessed the fragmentary species Atacisaurus crassiproratus as an example of Iberosuchus (cf. Iberosuchus, not assigned to any species).[3] Iberosuchus was a carnivore, but unlike modern crocodilians, sebecosuchids are regarded as terrestrial, not aquatic.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Antunes, M.T. (1975). "Iberosuchus, crocodile Sebecosuchien nouveau, l’Eocène ibérique au nord de la Chaîne central, et l’origine du canyon de Nazaré" (in Portuguese). Comunicaçoes dos Servicos Geologicos de Portugal 59: 285–330. 
  2. ^ Carroll, Robert L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0716718227. 
  3. ^ Ortega, F.; Buscaloni, A.D; and Gasaparini, Z. (1996). "Reinterpretation and new denomination of Atacisaurus crassiproratus (Middle Eocene; Issel, France) as cf. Iberosuchus (Crocodylomorpha, Metasuchia)". Geobios 29: 353–364. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(96)80037-4.