Un nuevo crocodiliforme maquimosaurino del Jurásico Superior de Alpuente en el 5th Palaeontological Virtual Congress

Durante el mes de marzo tuvo lugar la quinta edición del Palaeontological Virtual Congress, donde se presentó la comunicación: "A machimosaurid crocodyliform from the Tithonian of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation at Alpuente (Valencia Spain)" realizada por Arturo Gamonal, Maite Suñer, Iván Narváez y Francisco Ortega. Este trabajo presenta los restos de un nuevo crocodiliforme maquimosaurino del Jurásico Superior de Alpuente. Estos nuevos restos son elementos poscraneales, con varios centros vertebrales, el sacro completo y un fémur, además de un fragmento de mandíbula. Se han comparado estos restos con los diversos talatosuquios del Jurásico Superior europeo, demostrando las similitudes de estos restos con la tribu Machimosaurinii, haciendo de estos restos los primeros elementos postcraneales de este taxón en España. El resumen es el siguiente:

Teleosauroidea were a diverse group of marine crocodyliforms that thrived during the Early and Middle Jurassic, having a decline in diversity towards the end of the Upper Jurassic. Few remains of this group have been recovered beyond the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. In this study, we present the remains of a large teleosauroid found in Alpuente (Valencia, Spain).
The material was recovered from the Corral de Marín fossil site, located at the base of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, and dates from the lowermost Tithonian. It is therefore one of the few teleosauroids present during this age. The available remains include both cranial and postcranial elements: five dorsal vertebrae, a sacrum, four caudal vertebrae, a femur, a partial lower jaw, and osteoderms.
Comparative analysis with other teleosauroids from the Upper Jurassic of Europe reveals morphological features that enable its tentative classification within the Machimosaurini tribe. Key characters include the presence of three sacral vertebrae (two true sacrals and one caudosacral), the distinctive morphology of the Meckelian groove in the mandible, and the ornamentation of the teeth preserved in the alveoli of the lower jaw. The available characters allow for a preliminary assessment of the taxonomic status of the material, which exhibits unique features within the context of the Machimosaurini. This finding potentially represents the first record of skeletal remains for Machimosaurini in the Tithonian of Europe.

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