Aspectos diagnósticos del notosuquio Iberosuchus macrodon del Eoceno de Portugal en el XIX Annual Meeting de la EAVP

Otra de las comunicaciones presentadas por el Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED en la reciente 19th Annual Conference de la European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists (EAVP) celebrada en Benevento (Italia), ha tratado sobre los aspectos diagnósticos de la especie Iberosuchus macrodon. El holotipo de este notosuquio zifodonto es un fragmento rostral procedente de Vale Furado (Eoceno medio, Portugal) y no se conoce ningún otro material en el registro portugués. En este trabajo, se presenta el análisis de este ejemplar y su comparación con otros elementos asignados a esta especie procedentes del sur de Francia y España. A continuación, dejamos el resumen:

Laurasian notosuchians are a singularity within the record of crocodyliforms and, particularly, medium-large notosuchian ziphodonts outside Gondwana are restricted to the Eocene of the Iberian Peninsula and Southern France. The best-known set of these notosuchians is composed by remains from the Eocene of Portugal, Spain and France that are usually related to the Portuguese form Iberosuchus macrodon, although they are not synchronous and have a relatively wide distribution in time (Lutetian to Bartonian).

Since the holotype of Iberosuchus macrodon is restricted to the anterior portion of a rostrum from the Eocene of Vale Furado (middle Eocene, Lutetian. Portugal) and no other material is known from the Portuguese record, the assignment of other specimens from Spain and Southern France, and thus the characterization of this crocodile from attributed material, should be taken with caution.

In fact, in the holotype of Iberosuchus macrodon only a series of characters that are common to many notosuchians (and particularly to the baurusuchids) are identified. The only recognized automorphic character on the rostrum of specimens attributed to Iberosuchus outside Portugal is a large premaxillo-maxillary palatal fenestra associated with a complex palatal fossa. This character could not be confirmed directly in the holotype of Iberosuchus because most of this structure is internal or hidden by a plaster filling placed during preparation.

A CT-Scan of the Iberosuchus holotype has been carried out to describe in detail its rostral anatomy, both to evaluate its diagnostic capacity, and to compare it with those of specimens from the Spanish record.

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Más información:

• Referencia: Ortega, F., de Celis, A., Malafaia, E., Narváez, I., Serrano-Martínez, A., Arcucci, A. 2022. On the diagnosis of Iberosuchus macrodon (Crocodyliformes, Notosuchia) from the Eocene of Portugal. Abstract book of the 19th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists: 145-146.