Turfanosuchus

Turfanosuchus
Temporal range: Middle Triassic
A specimen of Turfanosuchus dabanensis, on display at the Paleozoological Museum of China.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Clade: Suchia
Family: †Gracilisuchidae
Genus: †Turfanosuchus
Young, 1973
Species
  • †T. dabanensis Young, 1973 (type)

Turfanosuchus is a genus of archosauriform reptile which lived during the Middle Triassic of northwestern China. The type species, T. dabanensis, was described by C.C. Young in 1973, based on a partially complete but disarticulated fossil skeleton (IVPP V.32237). Young originally believed that the fossils came from an animal similar to Euparkeria, and assigned it to the family Euparkeriidae. The fossil, however, was not fully prepared. Subsequent analysis by Parrish in 1993 indicated that the fossils represented a suchian.

Restoration

In 2001, Xiao-Chun Wu (of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing) and Anthony Russell (of the University of Calgary) redescribed the fossil. Wu and Russell prepared the fossil, and noted the limb bones (femur and humerus) resembled those of Ticinosuchus and Euparkeria, though the calcaneum did not. Further preparation revealed a partial osteoderm. Wu and Russell concluded that Turfanosuchus was not a suchian nor even a member of the Crurotarsi. They also ruled out the possibility of a close relationship with Euparkeria.

In 2010, paleontologists Martín Ezcurra, Agustina Lecuona, and Augustín Martinelli found Turfanosuchus to be a crurotarsan once again. This reassignment was based on the structure of the calcaneum, which is similar to that of other early crurotarsans, especially aetosaurs.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Ezcurra, M.D.; Lecuona, A.; Martinelli, A. (2010). "A new basal archosauriform diapsid from the Lower Triassic of Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30 (5): 1433–1450. doi:10.1080/02724634.2010.501446.

Wu, Xiao-Chun; Russell, Anthony (2001). "Redescription of Turfanosuchus dabanensis (Archosauriformes) and new information on its phylogenetic relationships"" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21 (1): 40–50. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0040:ROTDAA]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634. Retrieved 2008-06-08. 

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, September 11, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.