New material of the Late Cretaceous globidontan Acynodon iberoccitanus (Crocodylia) from southern France

ABSTRACT

Two exquisitely preserved specimens from the Late Cretaceous of southeastern France, together with less complete material from southwestern France, allow the most complete description of the cranial morphology of Acynodon iberoccitanus. The extremely brevirostrine condition associated with a unique dentition might indicate derived dietary behavior for Acynodon. New characters were coded in a previously published matrix. In this context, Acynodon is placed in a polytomy at the base of Globidonta. As an early European form, the position of Acynodon implies that no biogeographic models can be favoured to explain alligatoroid and globidontan migrations between North America and Europe.