Atacisaurus Temporal range: Middle Eocene,
| |
---|---|
Scientific 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]
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]
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]