Arambourgisuchus
| Arambourgisuchus Temporal range: Late
Palaeocene | |
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| Skull and line drawing | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauria |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
| Family: | †Dyrosauridae |
| Genus: | †Arambourgisuchus Jouve et al., 2005 |
| Type species | |
| †Arambourgisuchus khouribgaensis Jouve et al., 2005[1]
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Arambourgisuchus ("Prof. Camille Arambourg's crocodile") is an
History and naming
The fossils of Arambourgisuchus were unearthed in the Spring of 2000 thanks to the collaboration of French (French National Centre for Scientific Research, National Museum of Natural History, France) and Moroccon (Office Chérifien des Phosphates, Ministére de l’Energie et des Mines, Morocco) researchers in the phosphatic deposits of the Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco. The deposits of the basin range from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to the middle Eocene (Lutetian), with the deposits yielding Arambourgisuchus dating to the Thanetian age of the Paleocene, ca. 59 to 56 Ma. Four specimens have been described by Stéphane Jouve and colleagues. All of them stem from the Sidi Chenane phosphate mine, the holotype OCP DEK−GE 300, a nearly complete but heavily crushed skull, OCP DEK−GE 18 (a crushed skull and mandible) as well as two mandibular elements from two different specimens (OCP DEK−GE 1200 & OCP DEK−GE 269). Although heavily crushed and missing the tip of the rostrum, the holotype specimen can easily be reconstituted and is accessible from all sides. The referred skull OCP DEK−GE 18 does preserve the tip of the snout, however does not allow for the examination of several details of the bones.[1]
Arambourgisuchus is named after French paleontologist Camille Arambourg for his research on the fossil fauna of Morocco's phosphate mines. The species name alludes to the town of Khouribga north of the type locality.
Description
The skull of Arambourgisuchus measures up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in length, most of which being made up by the elongated rostrum. The nares are poorly preserved but large, the
Based on the skull length Arambourgisuchus was a large dyrosaur. It may be among the most longirostrine dyrosaurs, differing from
Phylogeny
Initial phylogenetic analysis were heavily restricted in terms of available taxa, only including species known from cranial material (and subsequently excluding
| Dyrosauridae |
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Following more intensive research on dyrosaurids during the 2000s and 2010s, including the description of several additional taxa, Jouve and colleagues published a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis on the internal relationships of the family.[2] In this analysis Arambourgisuchus was recovered as a hyposaurine dyrosaurid, most closely related to the two species of Dyrosaurus and the then newly described Luciasuchus from Bolivia.
| Dyrosauridae |
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