Dolichochampsa Explained

Dolichochampsa is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph. It is the type genus and only member of the family Dolichochampsidae.^[1] Fossils have been found in the Yacoraite Formation of Argentina and the El Molino Formation of Bolivia of Maastrichtian age.^[2] It had a distinctive slender snout.^[3] Because the material associated with the specimens is so fragmentary, its relationships with other eusuchians remain unknown.^[4] Jouve et al. (2020) assigned Dolichochampsa to Gavialoidea, making it the oldest known South American member of this clade.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Gasparini . Z . Buffetaut . E. . 1980 . Dolichochampsa minima, n.g.n.sp., a representative of a new family of eusuchian crocodiles from the Late Cretaceous of northern Argentina . Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte . 1980 . 5 . 257–271 . 10.1127/njgpm/1980/1980/257 .
2. Buffetaut . E. . 1987 . Occurrence of the crocodilian Dolichochampsa minima (Eusuchia, Dolichochampsidae) in the El Molino Formation of Bolivia . Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie . 96 . 2. 195–199 .
3. 10.1668/0003-1569(2001)041[0564:CSISAT]2.0.CO;2 . Brochu . C. A. . 2001 . Crocodylian snouts in space and time: phylogenetic approaches toward adaptive radiation . American Zoologist . 41 . 3. 564–585 . 10.1.1.554.231 .
4. 10.1098/rspb.2006.3613 . Salisbury . S. W. . Molnar . R. E. . Frey . E. . Willis . P. M. A. . 2006 . The origin of modern crocodyliforms: new evidence from the Cretaceous of Australia . Proceedings: Biological Sciences . 273 . 1600. 2439–2448 . 16959633 . 1634899.
5. Jouve . S. . de Muizon . C. . Cespedes-Paz . R. . Sossa-Soruco . V. . Knoll . S. . 2020 . The longirostrine crocodyliforms from Bolivia and their evolution through the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . 192 . 2 . 475–509 . 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa081 .