Massaliasuchus
Extinct genus of reptiles
Massaliasuchus is an extinct monospecific genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous (Santonian, Campanian) Fuvelian Lignites of southeastern France. The type species is M. affuvelensis.
01Systematics
Massaliasuchus was first described in 1869 by Philippe Matheron as Crocodilus affuvelensis, based on remains including skull bones. The new genus name was given to it in 2008 by Jeremy Martin and Eric Buffetaut. Massaliasuchus was considered to be related to early alligatoroids. Its name means "Marseille crocodile".
Recent cladistic analysis places Massaliasuchus as a member of Allodaposuchidae, a clade of basal eusuchians from the Late Cretaceous of southern Europe. The genus can be distinguished from Musturzabalsuchus in having 15 alveoli in the dentary. However, Massaliasuchus is usually omitted from phylogenetic analyses since it is only represented by poorly-preserved material.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Massaliasuchus”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Crocodilus affuvelensis Matheron.jpg by P. Matheron, Public domain
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