Redescription and phylogenetic placement of the Spanish middle Eocene eusuchian Duerosuchus piscator (Crocodylia, Planocraniidae)

ABSTRACT

Duerosuchus piscator is a middle Eocene eusuchian known only from Corrales del Vino (Zamora, Spain). The species was defined based on an incomplete skull, partial lower jaws and two vertebrae from a single individual, and several osteoderms referred to other specimens. A detailed study of these remains allows us to question the attribution of all these remains to the same form. Just the cranial remains are considered as indisputably attributable to it; the validity of this species being supported. The present study provides a detailed description and an amended diagnosis for Duerosuchus piscator, which is included for the first time in a phylogenetic analysis in order to establish its systematic position within Crocodylia. As a result of this study, the Eocene crocodyliform paleobiodiversity in the Duero Basin is recognized as comprising a notosuchian (Iberosuchus macrodon), as well as three crocodylians, each belonging to a clade: the alligatoroid Diplocynodon tormis, a crocodyloid traditionally attributed to the genus Asiatosuchus, and Duerosuchus piscator, which is here identified as a planocraniid, up to now unrecognized in the Iberian fossil record.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank E. Jiménez-Fuentes and Sala de las Tortugas de la Universidad de Salamanca for access to the material studied here. A. dC. was supported by a Spanish Ministry of Education fellowship (FPU 2016/01058). We would like to thank L. Alonso-Andrés and L. Alonso-Santiago for their work in favor of the Eocene paleontological record of the province of Zamora. We are grateful for constructive criticism provided by S. W. Salisbury, A. H. Turner, S. Jouve and an anonymous reviewer whose comments improved the manuscript. Finally, we also thank the Willi Hennig Society for making the TNT software freely available for download.

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.