Menatalligator
| Menatalligator | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
| Clade: | Archosauriformes |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Alligatoridae |
| Genus: | †Menatalligator Piton, 1937 |
| Type species | |
| †Menatalligator bergouniouxi Piton, 1937
| |
Menatalligator is an
monospecific genus of alligatorid crocodilian. Fossils have been found that are Eocene in age[1] from a locality in the commune of Menat in the Puy-de-Dôme department of France. The type and only species
, named in 1937, is M. bergouniouxi.
The strata from which remains of Menatalligator have been found are part of the Chaîne des Puys, a volcanically active chain of mountains in the Massif Central. The deposit is thought to have formed through the deposition of sediments in a body of water that filled a volcanic crater during the early Eocene (Ypresian). Fossil fish such as Amia valenciennense and Thaumaturus have been found from the same strata as Menatalligator, and most likely comprised a portion of its diet. The presence of the early primate-like plesiadapiform Plesiadapis insignis from these strata also make the area important to the study of early mammalian evolution after the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–T boundary).[2]