Neptunidraco
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic,
Holotype
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauria
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Clade: Crocodylomorpha
Suborder: †Thalattosuchia
Family: †Metriorhynchidae
Subfamily: †Geosaurinae
Genus: †Neptunidraco
Cau & Fanti, 2011
Species
  • N. ammoniticus Cau & Fanti, 2011 (type)
An artist's interpretation

Neptunidraco (meaning "Neptune's dragon") is an extinct genus of carnivorous marine crocodyliform which lived during the middle Jurassic period (late Bajocian to earliest Bathonian stage) in what is now northeastern Italy. It is known from a partial skeleton (incomplete skull with mandible) recovered from the nodular limestone of the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese Formation. This specimen had been provisionally referred to an unnamed species of Late Jurassic Metriorhynchus or Geosaurus. Neptunidraco was named by Andrea Cau and Federico Fanti in 2011 and the type species is Neptunidraco ammoniticus. The "Portomaggiore crocodile" is the most complete specimen of an Italian metriorhynchid to date and the oldest known metriorhynchid.[1]

Neptunidraco would have measured 3.7 m (12 ft) in total body length based on the specimen MPUP 6552, originally referred to as "Steneosaurus barettoni" and now reassigned to this genus since the 2013 study.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Andrea Cau; Federico Fanti (2011). "The oldest known metriorhynchid crocodylian from the Middle Jurassic of North-eastern Italy: Neptunidraco ammoniticus gen. et sp. nov". Gondwana Research. 19 (2): 550–565. Bibcode:2011GondR..19..550C. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2010.07.007.
  2. ↑ Cau, Andrea (2013). "The affinities of 'Steneosaurus barettoni' (Crocodylomorpha, Thalattosuchia), from the Jurassic of Northern Italy, and implications for cranial evolution among geosaurine metriorhynchids". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. 26 (4): 433–440. doi:10.1080/08912963.2013.784906. S2CID 129370850.
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