Caryonosuchus

Caryonosuchus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Family:	†Sphagesauridae
Genus:	†Caryonosuchus Kellner et al., 2011
Type species
†Caryonosuchus pricei Kellner et al., 2011

Caryonosuchus is an extinct genus of sphagesaurid notosuchian known from the Late Cretaceous of São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil.^[1]

Discovery

Caryonosuchus is known only from the holotype specimen DGM 1411-R, a nearly complete anterior portion of the skull and lower jaw which housed at the Earth Science Museum of the Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral. A cast is housed at the Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. It was found near Presidente Prudente City of southwest São Paulo State. It was collected from the Adamantina Formation of the Bauru Basin, which dates to the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. DGM 1411-R was briefly mentioned before the description of Caryonosuchus. For example, Kellner & Campos (1999) tentatively assigned it to Sphagesaurus sp., however newly described cranial sphagesaurid remains may suggest that the type species of the family, Sphagesaurus huenei, is a nomen dubium. Thus, DGM 1411-R is regarded as a new genus and species.^[1]

Description

Caryonosuchus is characterized by a unique combination of characters, including three autapomorphies (unique characteristics) such as a rostrum with horn-like tubercles on the maxilla and on the premaxilla. Caryonosuchus also has autapomorphic rough ornamentation with grooves and bony ridges on its rostrum.^[1] DGM 1411-R was found to be an advanced sphagesaurid in a phylogenetic analysis published by de Andrade et al. (2011). The following cladogram shows the position of Caryonosuchus among other sphagesaurids sensu this study.^[2]

	Notosuchidae Mariliasuchus Notosuchus Sphagesauridae Adamantinasuchus Yacarerani Armadillosuchus Sphagesaurus huenei Sphagesaurus montealtensis Caryonosuchus

Etymology

Caryonosuchus was first named by Alexander W. A. Kellner, Diogenes A. Campos, Douglas Riff and Marco Brandalise de Andrade in 2011 and the type species is Caryonosuchus pricei. The generic name is derived from Greek cáryon meaning "protuberances" and souchus meaning "crocodile". The specific name honors Llewellyn Ivor Price, a palaeontologist who described and named the genus Sphagesaurus and described the holotype of Caryonosuchus in an unpublished manuscript.^[1]

References

1. Alexander W. A. Kellner; Diogenes A. Campos; Douglas Riff; Marco Brandalise de Andrade (2011). "A new crocodylomorph (Sphagesauridae, Notosuchia) with horn-like tubercles from Brazil". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 163 (s1): S57–S65. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00712.x.
2. Marco Brandalise de Andrade; Richard Edmonds; Michael J. Benton; Remmert Schouten (2011). "A new Berriasian species of Goniopholis (Mesoeucrocodylia, Neosuchia) from England, and a review of the genus". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 163 (s1): S66–S108. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00709.x.