Iharkutosuchus

Iharkutosuchus ("Iharkút crocodile", after where it was found) is an extinct genus of basal eusuchian crocodyliform. Its fossils have been found in the Santonian-age Upper Cretaceous Csehbánya Formation in the Bakony Mountains of western Hungary. It is based on MTM 2006.52.1, a nearly complete skull, and several other partial skulls, isolated skull bones, and numerous teeth are also known. Iharkutosuchus was a small crocodyliform (skull length 11.1 centimetres (4.4 in), estimated body length 0.8 metres (2.6 ft)). Its skull was low, and the snout was short. Iharkutosuchus is unusual in its heterodonty: some of its teeth were complex and multicusped, like mammal teeth. The structure of the skull indicates that it could grind food with a mobile lower jaw, and together with the teeth suggest a diet of fibrous plant material. The genus was described in 2007 by Attila Ősi and colleagues. The type species is I. makadii, for László Makádi.[1]

Iharkutosuchus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Santonian
Holotype skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Family: Hylaeochampsidae
Genus: Iharkutosuchus
Ősi et al., 2007
Type species
Iharkutosuchus makadii
Ősi et al., 2007

References

  1. Ősi, Attila; Clark, James M.; Weishampel, David B. (2007). "First report on a new eusuchian crocodyliform with multicusped teeth from the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) of Hungary". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 243 (2): 169–177. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2007/0243-0169.


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