Kingdom Animalia Clade Eucrocopoda Clade Pseudosuchia Phylum Chordata | Class Reptilia Clade Archosauria Scientific name Turfanosuchus dabanensis Rank Genus | |
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Similar Gracilisuchus, Poposauridae, Revueltosaurus, Ornithosuchidae, Poposaurus | ||
Turfanosuchus is a genus of archosauriform reptile which lived during the Middle Triassic of northwestern China. The type species, T. dabanensis, was described by C.C. Young in 1973, based on a partially complete but disarticulated fossil skeleton (IVPP V.32237). Young originally believed that the fossils came from an animal similar to Euparkeria, and assigned it to the family Euparkeriidae. The fossil, however, was not fully prepared. Subsequent analysis by Parrish in 1993 indicated that the fossils represented a suchian.
In 2001, Xiao-Chun Wu (of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing) and Anthony Russell (of the University of Calgary) redescribed the fossil. Wu and Russell prepared the fossil, and noted the limb bones (femur and humerus) resembled those of Ticinosuchus and Euparkeria, though the calcaneum did not. Further preparation revealed a partial osteoderm. Wu and Russell concluded that Turfanosuchus was not a suchian nor even a member of the Crurotarsi. They also ruled out the possibility of a close relationship with Euparkeria.
In 2010, paleontologists Martín Ezcurra, Agustina Lecuona, and Augustín Martinelli found Turfanosuchus to be a crurotarsan once again. This reassignment was based on the structure of the calcaneum, which is similar to that of other early crurotarsans, especially aetosaurs.