Tagarosuchus

Tagarosuchus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Infraclass: Archosauromorpha
Superorder: Crocodylomorpha
(unranked): Crocodyliformes
Genus: Tagarosuchus
Alifanov et al., 1999
Species
  • T. kulemzini Alifanov et al., 1999 (type)

Tagarosuchus is an extinct genus of Early Cretaceous protosuchian-grade crocodyliform. Fossils of Tagarosuchus have been found from southern Siberia, including a nearly complete skull found near the village of Shestakovo in Kemerovo Oblast.[1] Tagarosuchus was named in 1999, with the type species being T. kulemzini.[2] Remains have been recovered from the Aptian-Albian Ilek Formation.

A diverse vertebrate assemblage has been uncovered from the Shestakovo locality. Tagarosuchus would have coexisted with paramacellodid, scincomorphan, and xenosaurid lizards, the shartegosuchid crocodyliform Kyasuchus, the tritylodontid cynodont Xenocretosuchus, the triconodont mammal Gobiconodon, the ceratopsian dinosaur Psittacosaurus, troodontid theropod dinosaurs, and sauropods, all of which have been described from the locality in the past few decades.[3]

References

  1. Fiorelli, L.E.; Calvo, J.O. (2007). "The first "protosuchian" (Archosauria: Crocodyliformes) from the Cretaceous (Santonian) of Gondwana". Arquivos do Museu Nacional 65 (4): 417–459.
  2. Alifanov, V.R.; Efimov, M.B.; Novikov, I.V.; Morales, M. (1999). "A new Psittacosaurian complex of tetrapods from the Lower Cretaceous Shestakovo Locality (Southern Siberia)". Doklady Earth Sciences 369: 1228–1230.
  3. Averianov, A.O.; Voronkevich, A.V.; Maschenko, E.N.; Leshchinskiy, S.V.; Fayngertz, A.V. (2002). "A sauropod foot from the Early Cretaceous of Western Siberia, Russia". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 47 (1): 117–124.