Theriosuchus
| Theriosuchus Temporal range: Late Jurassic-Late Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Fossil of T. pusillus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Family: | †Atoposauridae |
| Genus: | †Theriosuchus Owen, 1879 |
| Species | |
Theriosuchus is an extinct genus of atoposaurid mesoeucrocodylian from the Late Jurassic of Europe, the Early Cretaceous of Asia and the Late Cretaceous of Romania.[1] The five species are T. pusillus from England (Owen, 1879),[2] T. ibericus from Spain (Brinkmann, 1992),[3] T. guimarotae from Portugal (Schwarz & Salisbury, 2005),[4] T. sympiestodon from Romania (Jeremy E. Martin, Márton Rabi & Zoltán Csiki, 2010)[1] and T. grandinaris from Berriasian-Barremian of Thailand (Lauprasert et al., 2011).[5]
Theriosuchus was a common terrestrial mesoeucrocodylian in Europe during the Cretaceous. Fossils belonging to the genus are abundant at several European sites. It was one of the few basal mesoeucrocodylians to exist in Laurasia during the Late Cretaceous, a time when many basal forms such as notosuchians and araripesuchids were present in Gondwana. Some other basal mesoeucrocodylians present in Europe at this time were Doratodon and Ischyrochampsa.[1]
There is a 58-million-year gap in the fossil record of the genus that spans between the last occurrence of Early Cretaceous species and the appearance of the Late Cretaceous T. sympiestodon. Described in 2010, T. sympiestodon was found in the Haţeg Basin of Romania. During the Late Cretaceous, this area was part of Haţeg Island, which was part of an archipelago that spanned the Tethys Ocean.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Jeremy Martin, Márton Rabi and Zoltán Csiki (2010). "Survival of Theriosuchus (Mesoeucrocodylia: Atoposauridae) in a Late Cretaceous archipelago: a new species from the Maastrichtian of Romania". Naturwissenschaften 97 (9): 845–854. doi:10.1007/s00114-010-0702-y. PMID 20711558.
- ↑ Owen, R. (1879). "Monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Wealden and Purbeck Formations. Supplement IX, Crocodilia (Goniopholis, Brachydectes, Nannosuchus, Theriosuchus, and Nuthetes)". Palaeontographical Society of London Monograph 33: 1–19.
- ↑ Brinkmann, W. (1992). "Die Krokodilier-Fauna aus der Unter-Kreide (Ober-Barremium) von Uña (Provinz Cuenca, Spanien)". Berliner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (E) 5: 1–123.
- ↑ Schwarz, Daniela and Salisbury, Steven W. (2005). "A new species of Theriosuchus (Atoposauridae, Crocodylomorpha) from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) of Guimarota, Portugal". Geobios 38 (6): 779–802. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2004.04.005. ISSN 0016-6995. PDF
- ↑ Komsorn Lauprasert, Chalida Laojumpon, Wanitchaphat Saenphala, Gilles Cuny, Kumthorn Thirakhupt, Varavudh Suteethorn (2011). "Atoposaurid crocodyliforms from the Khorat Group of Thailand: first record of Theriosuchus from Southeast Asia". Paläontologische Zeitschrift 85 (1): 37–47. doi:10.1007/s12542-010-0071-z.
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