New Itasuchidae (Sebecia, Ziphosuchia) remains and the radiation of an elusive Mesoeucrocodylia clade

ABSTRACT

Crocodyliformes have a well-known worldwilde fossil record, revealing a high diversity of morphological traits, habits and being abundant in their paleofaunas. Such abundance in the fossil record is remarkable in the tetrapod fossil record in the continental sequences of Bauru Group (Brazil), in the Cretaceous of the South America. Here we describe and analyse three specimens from Bauru Group, assigned to a poorly understood crocodyliform clade: Itasuchidae. Their morphological similarity assigned them as Pepesuchus (from Turonian / Coniacian of Araçatuba Formation), Itasuchus cf. jesuinoi, and cf. Roxochampsa paulistanus (both last from Campanian to Early Maastrichtian of Presidente Prudente Formation). The phylogenetic and morphometric results corroborated the monophyly of the Itasuchidae with some variation in its content regard to prior and similar analyses (i.e. inclusion of Stolokrosuchus, Barreirosuchus and Antaeusuchus; exclusion of Caririsuchus), also pointing out to the South American itasuchid species as occupying a crocodyliform morphospace, which can imply distinct niche occupations. The Bauru Group undergoes a diversity peak of archosaurs in Upper Cretaceous, with a remarkable Crocodyliformes radiation, such as the Itasuchidae group, which probably have their most early-diverging lineages rising from Lower Cretaceous of Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Bauru Group
• Upper Cretaceous
• Itasuchidae
• phylogeny
• linear morphometric analysis

Acknowledgments

Thanks to CNPq financial support, allowing the field works and research (MCTI/CNPq 28/2018 nº 434690/2018-0). PVLGCP has post-doctoral grant by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro number (PDR10 E-26/201.995/2020). ASB has doctoral grant by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES – PROANTAR fellowship # 88887.336584/2019-00 to ASB). AEPP would like to thank IGHOR D. MENDES helping with some photos. Special thanks to all students who participate in the field work: MARIA LUÍSA P. BERTOLOSSI; NATASHA F. PARAÍZO; LUCAS S. CARVALHO; LEONARDO L.R. OLIVEIRA; RAYANE L. NASCIMENTO; CAROLINA P. GARUBA; BRUNA M.S. MAIA, RYAN, H.B. CARDOZO; YURI, O.M. NOBRE; TAINÁ C.F. PINTO; NATAN S. BRILHANTE; BEATRIZ P. PINHEIRO; and in special to RAFAELLE O.A. MADEIRA and GABRIEL S.C. CALABROT. We would like to thank RODRIGO R. MACHADO and RAFAEL C. DA SILVA (CPRM, Rio de Janeiro), for access to the fossil collection of MCTer. We thank LUCIANA B. CARVALHO for allowing access to the fossil collection of MN/UFRJ. We thank LÍLIAN P. BERGQVIST who kindly allowed access to the fossil preparation laboratory at DGEO/UFRJ. Thanks to ISMAR CARVALHO to access DEGO/UFRJ fossil collection. We also thank FELIPE SIMBRAS and RENATO RAMOS (MN/UFRJ) for geological discussions in the previous version of the manuscript. Finally, we acknowledge the Willi Henning Society for the TNT free software.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2022.2139179

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CNPQ [434690/2018-0]; CAPES [# 88887.336584/2019-00]; and Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [PDR10 E-26/201.995/2020].