Miembros del Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED han presentado en las XL Jornadas de Paleontología de la Sociedad Española de Paleontología, celebradas en la localidad onubense de Aracena, el trabajo titulado “Solving the puzzle: matching the cranial and postcranial remains of two allodaposuchid crocodyliforms from Lo Hueco, Spain”. Con esta contribución se da un paso más en la línea de investigación relacionada con los cocodrilos del yacimiento conquense de Lo Hueco, profundizando en el conocimiento de los allodaposúquidos. El resumen de este trabajo es el siguiente:
Allodaposuchidae is a group of Cretaceous eusuchian crocodyliforms with a particularly rich fossil record in the Iberian Peninsula. Previous studies on Lo Hueco (Late Cretaceous. Cuenca, Spain) site reveal the presence of two allodaposuchid species: Lohuecosuchus megadontos and Agaresuchus fontisensis. However, taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses have mainly based on the cranial anatomy. Recent studies have emphasized that the postcranial skeleton of eusuchians exhibits a greater morphological and morphofunctional diversity than previously thought, highlighting the necessity of a more concerted research effort in this regard. Furthermore, the documented fossil record of Allodaposuchidae contains few and generally fragmentary postcranial remains for most species. Since allodaposuchids are among the earliest representants of the eusuchian clade, their postcranial anatomy is of great interest to interpret the macroevolutionary morphological transformations underlying modern Crocodylia. Previous analyses distinguished two morphotypes (robust and slender) of postcranial structures (e.g., femora, vertebrae) of allodaposuchids from Lo Hueco. However, the relationship of these morphotypes with the described species was unknown. This study provides full morphological descriptions of the two identified postcranial morphotypes of Lo Hueco allodaposuchids, along with their corresponding taxonomic identification. By associating a series of postcranial remains to the holotype of Agaresuchus fontisensis, and building on previous morphotype identification work, it has been possible to assign most elements to one or the other species. We conclude that the “robust” morphotype corresponds to Lohuecosuchus megadontos while the “slender” type corresponds to Agaresuchus fontisensis. As a result, significant parts of the postcranial skeleton are now known for both species, which makes their postcranial record the most complete among the Allodaposuchidae clade.
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