Rileyasuchus is a genus of phytosaur from the Rhaetian (Late Triassic) Magnesian Conglomerate of England. It has a confusing history, being associated with the taxonomy of Palaeosaurus and Thecodontosaurus, and being a replacement name for a preoccupied genus (Rileya, which had already been used by Ashmead, and Howard both in 1888 for a hymenopteran).[1] [2]
Friedrich von Huene named the new genus for two vertebrae and a humerus from deposits in Bristol.[3] He had recognized it as a phytosaur by 1908 (by which point a few Palaeosaurus species had been added to the genus).[4]
It seems to have sat unrecognized for most of the 20th century, except for 1961 when Oskar Kuhn renamed it from Rileya to Rileyasuchus.[5] Adrian Hunt in 1994 (doctoral dissertation) first suggested that it was a herrerasaurid, although this was never published.[6] Benton et al. (2000) indicated that the type specimen was actually a chimera composed of a phytosaur humerus and Thecodontosaurus vertebrae.[7] It is best regarded as a nomen dubium.
As a phytosaur, it would have been a semi-aquatic crocodile-like predator.