Prestosuchus

Prestosuchus
	Prestosuchus chiniquensis , skeleton reconstruction
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Triassic
	228.7 to 199.6 million years
Locations
	South America (Brazil);
Systematics
	Diapsida
	Archosauromorpha
	Archosauria
	Rauisuchia
	Prestosuchidae
	Prestosuchus
Scientific name
	Prestosuchus
	von Huene , 1942
Art
	Prestosuchus chiniquensis;

Prestosuchus ("Prestos Crocodile") is a genus of diapsid reptiles (Diapsida) within the Prestosuchidae , an extinct taxon of predatory archosaurs (Archosauromorpha), which is placed among the " Rauisuchiern " (Rauisuchia).

The fossils of prestosuchus were found in the southern Brazilian rock layers, the origin of the entire Upper Triassic is dated. The Prestosuchus fossils are the youngest known from the Prestosuchidae.

The Rauisuchier

The Rauisuchier - whose status as an independent natural group ( Monophylum ) is in the scientific discussion - belong to the Crurotarsi , a line of archosaurs to which the crocodiles also belong. The Rauisuchers were very successful during the Triassic. They were relatively large, predatory archosaurs and good runners, some were possibly biped .

Description of Prestosuchus

Live reconstruction of Prestosuchus chiniquensis

Prestosuchus moved quadruped . It reached about five meters in length and was thus larger than the oldest known carnivorous dinosaurs Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus , which also lived in South America around the same time. Like the rest of the Rauisuchus, Prestosuchus had a relatively large skull and relatively few, laterally flattened teeth with serrated cutting edges.

Find history

Prestosuchus was scientifically described by the vertebrate paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1942 and the species P. chiniquensis and P. loricatus assigned to the genus . The validity of the second type is disputed. Von Huene named the genus after Vicentino Presto, a fossil collector who found the lower jaw of the first Prestosuchus in the Rio-do-Rasto strata west of Chiniqua in 1925 . Presto led von Huene to the site in 1928 to recover the rest of the skeleton, but in the meantime a large part of the skull had been destroyed by weathering . The specimen excavated here is the holotype of Prestosuchus and is now kept in Munich.

Prestosuchus and Chirotherium

Since Huene's publications on Prestosuchus , Rauisuchus and Procerosuchus , the originators of the traces of the tracking genus Chirotherium are suspected to be among the representatives of the Rauisuchians. The paleontologist Wolfgang Soergel made the hypothetical model of Chirotherium in 1925 and von Huene assumed that he had determined the real counterpart with the taxon Rauisuchia he established in 1942.

literature

Prestosuchus , skeletal reconstruction

Michael J. Benton : Vertebrate Palaeontology. 3rd edition. Blackwell Publishing, Malden MA 2005, ISBN 0-632-05637-1 .

Web links

Commons : Prestosuchus - collection of images, videos and audio files