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Information about Erpetosuchus

Erpetosuchus
Fossil range: Late Triassic

Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Sauropsida
Infraclass:Archosauromorpha
(unranked)Crurotarsi
(unranked)Paracrocodylomorpha
Genus:Erpetosuchus
Binomial name
Erpetosuchus granti
Newton, 1894


Erpetosuchus was a reptile from the Late Triassic, first described by E. T. Newton in 1984 for remains found in northeastern Scotland, with more remains found in the United States in recent years. This animal is important because it's closely related to the first crocodylomorphs, being possibly the sister-taxon to them.

The type species of Erpetosuchus is E. granti.

Material

The first remains of Erpetosuchus were found in the Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation in Scotland (late Carnian, Late Triassic), and consist of a skull and a partial postcranial skeleton. The holotype is BMNH R3139

During a field trip in 1995 to the lower part of the New Haven Formation in Connecticut, American palaeontologist Paul E. Olsen discovered a partial skull that, after preparation and description in 2000 (Olsen et al 2000), was referable to E. granti. This was the first record of E. granti outside of Scotland. The specimen has been given the number AMNH 29300 , and besides the right side of the skull, also has some vertebrae and indeterminate bones associated. Dating of the lower portion of the New Haven Formation indicates a Norian (Late Triassic) age.

Systematics

Erpetosuchus granti was originally assigned to Thecodontia, but that name no longer appears in scientific literature because it is a paraphyletic group, consisting of distantly related archosaurs. It has also been considered a crocodylomorph, included within the clade Erpetosuchia, or as a pseudosuchian.

A more recent phylogenetic analysis by Olsen et al (2000) found E. granti to be the sister-taxon to the Crocodylomorpha. These are united in a clade by the following synapomorphies:
  • Medial contact of the maxillae to form a secondary bony palate
  • Absence of a postfrontal
  • Parietals fused without a trace of an interparietal suture

References

Olsen, P. E., Sues, H.-D. & Norell, M. A., (2000) First record of Erpetosuchus (Reptilia: Archosauria) from the Late Triassic of North America. – Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol. 20, #4, pp. 633-636

External links

The Late Triassic (also known as Upper Triassic, or Keuper) is the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. It spans the time between 228 ± 2 Ma and 199.6 ± 0.6 Ma (million years ago).
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conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Sauropsida ("lizard-face") is a group of amniotes that includes reptiles, dinosaurs, and birds. Among amniotes, sauropsida is distinguished from theropsida ("beast-face"), also called synapsids.

Taxonomy

Classification to order level, after Benton, 2004.
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Archosauromorpha
von Huene, 1946

Orders

See text
Archosauromorpha (Greek for "ruling lizard forms") is an Infraclass of diapsid reptiles that first appeared during the late Permian and became more common during the Triassic.
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Crurotarsi
Sereno & Arcucci, 1990

Orders
  • Phytosauria
  • Aetosauria
  • Rauisuchia*
  • Crocodilia


The Crurotarsi ("cross-ankles") are a group of archosaurs created as a node-based clade by Paul Sereno in 1991 to supplant the old term
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Sauropsida*
Goodrich, 1916

Subclasses
  • Anapsida
  • Diapsida
Synonyms
  • Reptilia Laurenti, 1768
Reptiles are tetrapods and amniotes, animals whose embryos are surrounded by an amniotic membrane, and members of the class
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The Late Triassic (also known as Upper Triassic, or Keuper) is the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. It spans the time between 228 ± 2 Ma and 199.6 ± 0.6 Ma (million years ago).
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Motto
Nemo me impune lacessit   (Latin)
"No one provokes me with impunity"
"Cha togar m'fhearg gun dioladh"   
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Crocodylomorpha
Hay, 1930

Orders

see text

The Crocodylomorpha are an important group of archosaurs that include the crocodilians and their extinct relatives.
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A holotype is one of several possible biological types. A type is what fixes a name to a taxon. A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to be used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described.
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State of Connecticut

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Motto(s): Qui transtulit sustinet[0]
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Paleontology, palaeontology or palæontology (from Greek: paleo, "ancient"; ontos
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Paul E. Olsen (born 4 August 1953) is an American paleontologist and author and co-author of a large number of technical papers. He received a M. Phil. and a Ph.D. in Biology at Yale University in 1984. His thesis was on the Newark Supergroup.
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Thecodont ("socket-toothed" reptile), now considered an obsolete term , was formerly used to describe a diverse range of early archosaurs that first appeared in the Latest Permian and flourished until the end of the Triassic period.
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In phylogenetics, a group of organisms is said to be paraphyletic (Greek para = near and phyle = race) if the group contains its most recent common ancestor, but does not contain all the descendants of that ancestor.
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Archosauria
Cope, 1869

Clades
  • Crurotarsi
  • Aetosauria
  • Crocodilia (crocodiles)
  • Phytosauria

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Pseudosuchia ("false crocodiles") is the name originally given to a group of prehistoric reptiles from the Triassic period. The name has been variously interpreted, and it is still sometimes, if infrequently, used in scientific literature today.
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In evolutionary biology, a synapomorphy is a derived character state shared by two or more terminal groups (taxa included in a cladistic analysis as further indivisible units) and inherited from their most recent common ancestor.
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