Kuttanacaiman
| Kuttanacaiman | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
| Clade: | Archosauriformes |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Alligatoridae |
| Subfamily: | Caimaninae |
| Genus: | †Kuttanacaiman Salas-Gismondi et al., 2015 |
| Type species | |
| †Kuttanacaiman iquitosensis Salas-Gismondi et al., 2015
| |
Kuttanacaiman is a
bivalves. Its estimated total body length is 171.2 to 189.1 centimetres (5.62 to 6.20 ft).[1]
Etymology
The genus name comes from the Quechua word kuttana, meaning "grinding or crushing machine", and its species name honors the Iquitos native peoples.
Habitat
Kuttanacaiman lived in Amazonia at a time before the
Gnatusuchus pebasensis and Caiman wannlangstoni. Shells belonging to the bivalve genus Pachydon form thick fossil beds in the Pebas Formation and may have been a food source for Kuttanacaiman and these other caimans in swamps and marshes.[1]
Taxonomy
A
Caimaninae. Other basal caimanines such as Gnatusuchus and Globidentosuchus also possess crushing teeth, suggesting that this type of dentition was ancestral for the clade. Later caimanines, including most living species in the genus Caiman, have more generalized dentitions, but some species such as C. wannlangstoni and C. latirostris seem to have re-evolved crushing dentitions. Below is a cladogram showing this evolutionary pattern, with crushing-dentition caimanine species in bold:[1]
| Globidonta |
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References
- ^ PMID 25716785.