Atacisaurus
Temporal range: Middle Eocene,
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Archosauriformes
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Gavialidae
Genus: †Atacisaurus
Astre, 1931
Species:
†A. glareae
Binomial name
†Atacisaurus glareae
Astre, 1931

Atacisaurus is an extinct dubious genus of gavialoid crocodylian. Fossils have been found in the Grès de Carcassonne Member of the Sables du Castrais Formation in Laure-Minervois, France that date back to the Middle Eocene.[1]

Discovery and naming

The holotype, discovered in 1919 by M. Finestres in Laure-Minervois and previously housed at the Société d'Etudes Scientifiques de l'Aude,[1] is an anterior portion of a mandible which is now lost,[1] and MHNT.PAL.2012.0.49, a partial skull from a different specimen is also known, which was donated to the History Museum of Toulouse in 1873 by Henri de Sévérac;[2] MHNT.PAL.2012.0.49 has since been partially prepared at sometime between 1931 and 17 April 2016.[1]

The type species, A. glareae, was named and described by Gaston Astre in 1931.[3] A snout fragment from the History Museum of Tolouse was also described by Astre (1931),[3] but can not be identified further than cf. Atacisaurus.[1]

A second nominal species of this genus, Atacisaurus crassiproratus, was reclassified as a sebecosuchian in the 1990s, listed as cf. Iberosuchus by Ortega et al. (1996)[2] before being recognized as distinct from Iberosuchus by Martin et al. (2023) and renamed Dentaneosuchus.[4]

Classification

Atacisaurus glareae has been considered synonymous with Pristichampsus rollinatii,[5] Tomistoma,[6][7] Crocodylus intermedius[8] and Kentisuchus spenceri.[9]

Although currently classified within Gavialidae,[4] Atacisaurus has been suggested to have tentatively belonged within Tomistominae due to its resemblance to Megadontosuchus.[10][11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Jouve, Stéphane (2016). "A new basal tomistomine (Crocodylia, Crocodyloidea) from Issel (Middle Eocene; France): palaeobiogeography of basal tomistomines and palaeogeographic consequences: A New Basal Tomistomine from France". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 177 (1): 165–182. doi:10.1111/zoj.12357.
  2. 1 2 Ortega, F.; Buscaloni, A.D; Gasaparini, Z. (1996). "Reinterpretation and new denomination of Atacisaurus crassiproratus (Middle Eocene; Issel, France) as cf. Iberosuchus (Crocodylomorpha, Metasuchia)". Geobios. 29 (3): 353–364. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(96)80037-4.
  3. 1 2 Astre, G. (1931). "Les crocodiliens fossiles des terrains tertiaires sous pyrénéens". Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire naturelle de Toulouse. 61: 25–71.
  4. 1 2 Martin, J. E.; Pochat-Cottilloux, Y.; Laurent, Y.; Perrier, V.; Robert, E.; Antoine, P.-O. (2023). "Anatomy and phylogeny of an exceptionally large sebecid (Crocodylomorpha) from the middle Eocene of southern France". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. e2193828. doi:10.1080/02724634.2023.2193828. S2CID 258361595.
  5. ↑ Rossmann, Torsten (1998-11-10). "2. Taxonomical revision of the family Pristichampsidae EFIMOV (Crocodilia: Eusuchia)". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 210 (1): 85–128. doi:10.1127/njgpa/210/1998/85. ISSN 0077-7749.
  6. ↑ Romer, A. S. (1956). Osteology of Reptiles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  7. ↑ Kuhn, O. (1968) Die vorzeitlichen Krokodile. Munich: Oeben, Krailling bei München.
  8. ↑ Berg, D. E. (1966) Die Krokodile, insbesondere Asiatosuchus und aff. Sebecus?, aus dem Eozän von Messel bei Darmstadt/Hessen. Abhandlungen des Hessischen Landesamtes für Bodenforschung 52:1-105.
  9. ↑ Jouve, S. (2004). Etude des Crocodyliformes fini Crétacé-Paléogène du Bassin des Oulad Abdoun (Maroc) et comparaison avec les faunes africaines contemporaines: systématique, phylogénie et paléobiogéographie. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. Paris: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 651 pp.
  10. ↑ Vasse, D. (1992).Les crocodiles de l'Aude: aperçu du matériel connu et présentation de quelques nouvelles pièces. Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes Scientifiques de l'Aude. 92: 37–41.
  11. ↑ Brochu, C. A. (2013). Phylogenetic relationships of Palaeogene ziphodont eusuchians and the status of Pristichampsus Gervais, 1853. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 103: 521–550.
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