Topic
Dyrosaurus
About: Dyrosaurus is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2 publications have been published within this topic receiving 147 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: A phylogenetic analysis shows the dyrosaurids as the sister taxon of pholidosaurids, which include Elosuchus, Sarcosuchu, Terminonaris and Pholidosaurus, and the thalattosuchians, and a non-monophyletic group; however, phylogenetic problems remain with respect to longirostrine clade, and more attention should be paid to resolving their evolutionary relationships amongst the crocodyliforms.
109 citations
TL;DR: An African origin of Dyrosauridae with dispersals to the New World by the Late Cretaceous or earliest Paleocene is supported and a radiation of dyrosaurid crocodyliforms, possibly following the K-P boundary, in tropical South America is suggested.
Abstract: The fossil record of dyrosaurid crocodyliforms spans the Late Cretaceous to Middle Eocene of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Prior to this study, specimens from South America have been limited to a few fossils with only two taxa diagnosed. We describe a nearly complete skull and unassociated mandible of a new dyrosaurid, Cerrejonisuchus improcerus gen. et sp. nov., from the Paleocene Cerrejon Formation of northeastern Colombia. The skull of C. improcerus has relatively elongate supratemporal fenestrae and well-developed occipital tuberosities, both diagnostic characteristics of Dyrosauridae. The rostrum of adult C. improcerus comprises 54–59% of the length of the skull, making it the shortest snout of any known dyrosaurid. A cladistic analysis using 82 cranial and mandibular characters for all species of Dyrosauridae known from crania yielded two most-parsimonious cladograms with C. improcerus as the sister taxon to a clade including Arambourgisuchus, Dyrosaurus, Hyposauru...
74 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 1 |
| 2006 | 1 |