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- Title
A NEW METRIORHYNCHID CROCODILIAN (MESOEUCROCODYLIA: THALATTOSUCHIA) FROM THE KIMMERIDGIAN (UPPER JURASSIC) OF WILTSHIRE, UK.
- Authors
WILKINSON, LAURA E.; YOUNG, MARK T.; BENTON, MICHAEL J.
- Abstract
Recent revision of the marine metriorhynchid crocodilians indicates that a partial skull previously assigned to the species Metriorhynchus superciliosus and newly discovered postcranial elements from the Kimmeridge Clay of Westbury, Wiltshire belong to a new species of metriorhynchid. This material is herein described and referred to a new species of the genus Dakosaurus, characterised by four apomorphies: the size and shape of the enlarged supratemporal fossae; relatively large teeth, and half the number in relatives; the robust and unornamented cranium; and the angle that the prefrontal makes with the long axis of the skull. In a new phylogenetic analysis, Dakosaurus carpenteri sp. nov. is the basal member of a clade containing also D. maximus and D. andiniensis: it is not so short-snouted and its teeth are not so few and large as in the other two species, but the new form illustrates the ecological transition among metriorhynchids from a piscivorous diet to high-order carnivory.
- Subjects
WILTSHIRE (England); ENGLAND; FOSSIL crocodilians; SKULL; CRANIOMETRY
- Publication
Palaeontology, 2008, Vol 51, Issue 6, p1307
- ISSN
0031-0239
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00818.x