| Musturzabalsuchus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Holotype jaw ofM. buffetauti | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauria |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
| Clade: | †Allodaposuchidae |
| Genus: | †Musturzabalsuchus Buscalioniet al., 1997 |
| Species: | †M. buffetauti |
| Binomial name | |
| †Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti Buscalioniet al., 1997 | |
Musturzabalsuchus is anextinctmonospecificgenus ofallodaposuchideusuchiancrocodyliform. Thetype and onlyspecies isMusturzabalsuchus buffetauti.
Thegeneric name means "broadened rostrum crocodile", with "Musturzabal" meaning "broadened rostrum" inBasque and "suchus" meaning "crocodile" inGreek. Thetype and onlyspecies isM. buffetauti, named after the French paleoherpetologistEric Buffetaut.
The material first assigned toMusturzabalsuchus in 1997 has been found from the locality of Laño inCondado de Treviño, northernSpain.[1] Although dating back to theLate Cretaceous, the exact age of the strata in which material ofMusturzabalsuchus occurs in the locality is not known: it is either LateCampanian or very EarlyMaastrichtian.[2] Despite the unusually high quantity of remains belonging to the genus, the only skeletal elements known fromMusturzabalsuchus are themaxilla andmandible. Some fragments of these bones have been found from the locality of Armuña in the province ofSegovia that were previously referred to an unnamedtrematochampsid.[3] Like theholotype andparatype material found from Laño, thesefossils, known collectively as UPUAM-502, are Campano-Maastrichtian in age.[1]
Another specimen (MHNM 10834.0) from theFuvelian Lignites ofFrance has been referred toMusturzabalsuchus in 1999.[4] However, the characteristics used to assign the material to better-known specimens ofMusturzabalsuchus from Spain were questioned in a later 2008 study.[5]
Material fromMusturzabalsuchus has been found more recently fromValencia, Spain, being slightly older in age than specimens from other localities, dating back to the Early or Middle Campanian.[6]
Musturzabalsuchus was initially assigned toAlligatoroidea on the basis of several characters, including a lateral displacement of theforamen aereum of thearticular. Additionally, the enlarged fourth mandibular tooth occludes into a pit in the rostrum.[7] Only the latter feature is present in the more derivedalligatorids, and thus it is excluded from thefamily.[7] The pit that the fourth mandibular occludes into is placed posterior to the lastpremaxillary tooth, similar to what is seen in"Diplocynodon" hantoniensis, another early alligatoroid. A figure used in an 1869 study byP. Matheron of crocodylian remains from the Fuveau Lignites (illustration) pictured a mandible similar in profile to that ofMusturzabalsuchus, but was labeled as belonging to the crocodylianCrocodilus affuvelensis.[8] In 1997 it was suggested that due to this apparent similarity, along with the vagueness of descriptions in the 1869 paper and the loss of thesyntype, thatC. affuvelensis could be reassigned toMusturzabalsuchus, although it was also acknowledged that the lack of posterior cranial material in the genus made detailed comparisons difficult.[1] A recent 2008 study on Matheron's specimens concluded that they belonged to a new genus distinct fromCrocodylus and different fromMusturzabalsuchus, namedMassaliasuchus.[5]
Recentphylogenetic studies now recoverMusturzabalsuchus as a member ofAllodaposuchidae, outsideAlligatoroidea.[9][10] However,Musturzabalsuchus is usually omitted fromphylogenetic analyses due to the lack of sufficient anatomical information.[10]
Musturzabalsuchus andAcynodon, a contemporary crocodilian also common from Laño, are thought to have been closely related to Paleolaurasian alligatoroids. The latter genus is the only taxon not known fromNorth America to be related to the morederived Late Cretaceous tribodont alligatorids. It is clear thatMusturzabalsuchus wasendemic toEurope, and was most likely restricted toIbero-Armorica Island,[11][12] as the genus is absent from Northern and Eastern European localities from which other alligatoroid fossils have been found.[1]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
