Dongusuchus

Dongusuchus
Dongusuchus
Temporal range: Middle Triassic
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Infraclass: Archosauromorpha
(unranked): Crurotarsi
Order: ?Rauisuchia
Genus: Dongusuchus
Sennikov, 1988
Species
  • D. efremovi Sennikov, 1988 (type)

Dongusuchus (meaning Donguz River crocodile in Greek, for the area where the type specimen was found[1]) is an extinct genus of rauisuchian. Fossils have been found from the Donguz Formation outcropping on the banks of the Donguz River in the Orenburg Oblast of Russia. They are associated with a fossil assemblage called the Eryosuchus Fauna, named after the capitosaurid Eryosuchus, the most common organism found from the assemblage. The locality dates back to the Anisian and early Ladinian stages of the Middle Triassic.[2]

Dongusuchus was a gracile rausuchian with a long, sigmoidally curved neck, unlike the more typical robust short-necked rauisuchians that appear later in the Triassic.

References

  1. ^ Sennikov, A. G. (1988) Novyye rauizukhidy iz triasa yevropeyskoy chasti SSSR. Paleontol. Zhurn. 1990(2):124-128 Moscow.
  2. ^ Gower, D. J. and Sennikov, A. G. (2000). Early archosaurs from Russia. In M. J. Benton, E. N. Kurochkin, M. A. Shishkin, D. M. Unwin (eds.), The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. pp. 140-159