Kingdom Animalia Clade Mesoeucrocodylia Phylum Chordata | Class Reptilia Scientific name Zosuchus davidsoni Rank Genus | |
Similar Litargosuchus, Gobiosuchus, Hallopus, Junggarsuchus, Trialestes | ||
Zosuchus ("Zos [Canyon] crocodile") is a genus of basal, Late Cretaceous crocodyliform from the Redbeds of Zos Canyon (Djadokhta Formation) in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. It was discovered by expeditions organized by the American Museum of Natural History, and described by palaeontologists Diego Pol and Mark Norell.
Contents
The type species is Z. davidsoni, after Amy Davidson.
Material
Material of Z. davidsoni consists of five specimens:
Systematics
Pol & Norell (2004) found Zosuchus davidsoni to be the sister taxon of the clade (Sichuanosuchus + Shantungosuchus). These three form a basal clade of crocodyliforms joined together by the presence of a ventrally deflected posterior region of the mandibular rami.
Morphology
This genus had a very short snout.
References
Zosuchus Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA