Caipirasuchus paulistanus, a new sphagesaurid (Crocodylomorpha, Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Adamantina Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Turonian–Santonian), Bauru Basin, Brazil

ABSTRACT

A skull and mandible of a new species of notosuchian, Caipirasuchus paulistanus, belonging to the Sphagesauridae, were discovered in the rocks of the Adamantina Formation (Bauru Basin: Late Cretaceous). The main autapomorphies are external naris bordered only by premaxillae; very high pterygoids and ectopterygoids; palatines contacting maxillae by a cuneiform process; well-developed oval antorbital fenestra; premaxilla with four teeth; dentary with ten teeth and two diastemata; and one diastema in the premaxilla and another between the fourth alveolus of the premaxilla and the first of the maxilla. Morphological analysis and experimental data suggest an animal with a powerful bite and a dentition with specific regions of action, one adapted to apprehension and the other to food processing.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the team from the Museu de Paleontologia de Monte Alto, especially A. C. Arruda-Campos, for access to the collection under his care, and S. A. S. Tavares, for preparing the specimen herein studied. We also thank D. Silva (Pepi) for the illustrations and restoration of Caipirasuchus paulistanus. Special thanks are given to T. S. Marinho and J. S. Bittencourt for their assistance with in the data set and phylogenetic analysis. We would like also to thank Z. Gasparini, C. A. Brochu, R. E. Molnar, and J. Müller for their reviews of the manuscript. Finally, we thank the Willi Hennig Society for the free availability of the program TNT. CNPQ and FAPERJ supported this study.

Handling editor: Johannes Müller