Montealtosuchus
| Montealtosuchus | ||||||||||||
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Montealtosuchus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Chalk | ||||||||||||
| 93.5 to 83.5 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Montealtosuchus | ||||||||||||
| Carvalho , Vasconcellos & Tavares , 2007 | ||||||||||||
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Montealtosuchus ("Crocodile of Monte Alto") is a genus of the Peirosauridae - a group of extinct, rural crocodile relatives - from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil. The Peirosauridae were medium-sized predators (predators) and opportunistic scavengers .
The genus Montealtosuchus and its type M. arrudacamposi are only known from a find from the fossil-rich Bauru basin . This was scientifically described in 2007 by Carvalho, Vasconcellos and Tavares . The reddish rocks of the site in the Adamantina Formation on the edge of Monte Alto in the Brazilian state of São Paulo date from the Turonian to the Santonian period (93.5 to 83.5 million years ago). The find is relatively complete and articulated (in an anatomical combination) and consists of a skull with a lower jaw as well as material from the body skeleton ( postcranium ) and exoskeletal bone armor . Therefore, it provides important information about the general anatomy of the Peirosaurids.
Research suggests that the Peirosaurids remained restricted to the Upper Cretaceous of South America due to the paleogeographical isolation of the continent during this period. In addition, the discovery of Montealtosuchus in the Adamantina formation expands the knowledge about the temporal range of the Mesoeucrocodylia (to which the Peirosauridae belong) in Brazil.
Individual evidence
- ^ The Paleobiology Database as of April 29, 2004
- ↑ Ismar de Souza Carvalho, Felipe Mesquita de Vasconcellos, Sandra Apare-Cida Simionato Tavares: Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, a new peirosaurid crocodile (Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation of Brazil. In: Zootaxa. No. 1607, 2007, ISSN 1175-5326 , pp. 35-46, abstract (PDF; 15 kB) .