Menatalligator

Menatalligator is an extinct monospecific genus of alligatorid crocodilian. Fossils have been found that are Eocene in age[1] from a locality in the commune of Menat in the Puy-de-Dôme department of France. The type and only species, named in 1937, is M. bergouniouxi.

Menatalligator Temporal range: Early Eocene: Ypresian, ~
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Crocodilia
Family:	Alligatoridae
Genus:	†Menatalligator Piton, 1937
Type species
†Menatalligator bergouniouxi Piton, 1937

The strata from which remains of Menatalligator have been found are part of the Chaîne des Puys, a volcanically active chain of mountains in the Massif Central. The deposit is thought to have formed through the deposition of sediments in a body of water that filled a volcanic crater during the early Eocene (Ypresian). Fossil fish such as Amia valenciennense and Thaumaturus have been found from the same strata as Menatalligator, and most likely comprised a portion of its diet. The presence of the early primate-like plesiadapiform Plesiadapis insignis from these strata also make the area important to the study of early mammalian evolution after the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–T boundary).[2]