Sulcusuchus
Sulcusuchus is a genus of polycotylid plesiosaur from the Late Campanian of Argentina.
| Sulcusuchus | |
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| Life restoration | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Family: | †Polycotylidae |
| Genus: | †Sulcusuchus Gasparini & Spalletti 1990 |
| Species: | †S. erraini |
| Binomial name | |
| †Sulcusuchus erraini Gasparini & Spalletti 1990 | |
Description
The type species Sulcusuchus erraini was named in 1990 by Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini and Luis Spalletti. It was at first considered to have been a dyrosaurid crocodile, hence its generic name: "trough crocodile". Its holotype, MPEF 650, was at Jacobacci, Río Negro Province, uncovered in a layer of the late Campanian La Colonia Formation. It consists of a posterior left mandible fragment of about half a meter long with an associated jaw joint condyle of the skull, lower braincase, rear palate and middle snout fragment. The outer side of the mandible shows the trough, which would be exceptional for a crocodile.[1] The mandibula and pterygoids show grooves that may have housed electro-sensitive organs.[2] The snout is very elongated and the pterygoids are fused.
References
- Gasparini, Z., y Spalletti, L., 1990. "Un nuevo cocodrilo en depósitos mareales maastrichtianos de la Patagonia noroccidental", Ameghiniana 27: 141–150
- O’Gorman, J.P. & Gasparini, Z., 2013, "Revision of Sulcusuchus erraini (Sauropterygia, Polycotylidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina", Alcheringa 37: 161–174
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